Youth

The collection of poems Youth is a tribute to the generation of the author who grew up at the beginning of the 21st century. Each of the three chapters of the book corresponds to its own facet of the experience of youth: the first is about the pursuit of exaggerated creative ambitions, the second plays on the themes of friendship and the open world, and the third is dedicated to the search for intimacy. At the same time, each chapter corresponds to its own style of writing: the first is a stylization of the ancient epic, the second uses conceptual writing techniques (quoting) and the aesthetics of avant-garde literary currents, and the third is created as a prose cycle.

Ivars Šteinbergs has written a book whose existence is hard to believe. First of all, the theme of youth itself - it is hard to find an equivalent of it in Latvian literature, which also uses pathos as a contemporary means of expression. Then the form - reanimation of the poem genre on an impressive scale, patient and purposeful work, carefully weighing each word and - as in the first text of the book - each syllable. Finally, the capacity, both emotional and intellectual, will bless even the most demanding readers. Although poetry is not a competition, I feel that Šteinbergs is far ahead of the rest with this book—at least for a moment.

Artis Ostups

Ivars Šteinbergs (1991) - poet, translator. In 2017, he received a Fulbright scholarship and in 2018, he obtained a master's degree in comparative literature from the State University of New York in Binghamton (USA). He is studying for a doctorate at the Latvian Academy of Culture. In 2020, his debut poetry collection Beehive ("Neputns") was published, which was nominated for the Latvian Literary Award in the debut category and won the 2021 Poetry Days Award and the Ojāra Vācieša Prize.