The Noisy Classroom: Poems for Children

About Ieva Flamingo

Ieva Flamingo (the pen name of Ieva Samauska) is one of the most prolific Latvian childrens authors writing today. She has been a journalist at various newspapers and magazines for over twenty years and for the last ten years has worked at Ieva Latvias biggest weekly magazine. She won the Pastari Prize for Latvian Childrens Literature in 2015 and her books have been nominated for the International Jnis Baltvilks Baltic Sea Region Award four times. Her first collection of lyrical poems K uzburt sniegu/How to conjure up snow (liels un mazs 2006) was adapted for the Latvian National Theatre in 2007. Ieva lives in Saldus a small town in Latvia with her family three cats and a white dog. Vivianna Maria Staislavska studied Printmaking and Graphic Arts at the Art Academy of Latvia. The Noisy Classroom is her debut illustrated book and won her the Jnis Baltvilks Jaunaudze Award in 2016. anete Vvere Pasqualini is a translator and literary agent. She graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages University of Latvia in 1995 at the same time completing a course in Italian language at the University of Perugia. She was the first Latvian Consul in Rome after Latvia regained independence and now divides her time between Latvia and Italy. She currently she works as a literary agent for Latvia promoting Latvian literature abroad and dedicating some of her time to literary translation. In her translations anete enjoys the challenge of rendering the text precisely while keeping the target language as natural and flowing as possible. Her translations into English include: novel The Green Crow by Kristne Ulberga (Peter Owen Press); the short stories The Birds of psala island by Dace Rukne and The Shakes by Svens Kuzmins (anthologised in The Book of Riga Comma Press); childrens poetry The Noisy Classroom by Ieva Flamingo (Emma Press); the childrens book Dog Town by Luze Pastore (Firefly); Minimisms by Imants Ziedonis (Viegli) and the play History Research Commission by Alvis Hermanis and company (Jaunais Rgas Tetris). Sara Smith is a teacher and translator based in Rome. She studied Italian and Business at Edinburgh University where she was awarded a Swiss Arts Council prize for translation. She has worked for a decade with Latvian Literature the national body promoting the country's literature abroad as editor of translated works of literary fiction for adults and books for children. Her work has been published by Guerra Editori Artes Faveo and The Emma Press. Richard OBrien is a poet translator and academic based in Birmingham UK.