Karlis Verdins was born in 1979 in Riga. He has published five books of poetry: Ledlaui (Icebreakers, 2001), Biezpiens ar krejumu (Cottage Cheese with Sour Cream, 2004), Burtinu zupa (Alphabet Soup, for children, 2007), Es (I, 2008), and Mes: kopota dzeja (We: Collected Poetry, 2012). He is a renowned critic, with an MA in Cultural Theory and a PhD in Philology, and has published many essays on literature as well as translations of European and American poets (including T.S. Eliot, Konstantin Biebl, Georg Trakl, Joseph Brodsky, Walt Whitman), and has also written libretti and song lyrics. His own poetry has been translated in many languages, including collections in Russian and Polish, and appears in the Arc Publications anthologies A Fine Line (2004) and Six Latvian Poets (2011).