Guntars Godiņš, the book's editor, describes the third collection of Madara Gruntmanes' poems, Afterlove: "From both of Madara's previous collections - Narcosis and Drinking Maid - she inherits the ornament of writing, laconicism, directness, naturalness of language, essentially tangible and perceptible stylistic devices - thinking, servants of feeling and expression that define the stylistic handwriting of any poet.
The new collection of poems is in a way more muted and restrained, it does not have so much bravado, eroticism, but there's more delicacy of relationships and sensitive experience. With a light and ironic touch, Madara Gruntmane proves that even such a simple and stretched word as "love" can be brought up to date, remove the mold of banality accumulated over the years, and intrigue. The new word "love" used for the title of the book is in a sense anthropological, something lost or forgotten, but at the same time not there. This book is a book of relationships between me and you, between him and us, between Madara and omi, between Madara and mom, or as in the fourth chapter poem, Obituary, between Madara now and Madara in 2054."
My new collection of poems is a journey in the verb with root “love”. It goes up and down like a roller coaster until it leads to the noun - "afterlove".
Madara Gruntmane
Madara Gruntmane (1981) made her debut in poetry in 2015 with the collection Narcosis (the English translation was published in 2018, in 2015 she received the Readers' Sympathy Award of the Latvian Literature of the Year Award). The second collection -
Drinking Maid - was published in 2018. The poet has received an Honorary Writing Fellow at Iowa University's International Writing Program (US). Gruntmane always bases her small poems on personal experience. They are psychologically precise works that choose a direct and unsparing message instead of an ornamental expression. (Source: literatura.lv)
Interview with Madara on her poetry book Afterlove in Latvian: Ceļojums no brīža, kad mūsu vairs nav. Madara Gruntmane iepazīstina ar dzejas krājumu «Aizmīlestība»