Juris Kronbergs

Juris Kronbergs (9 August 1946 – 6 July 2020) was a Latvian-Swedish poet and translator who lived in Stockholm.

In Latvia, he is best known for his poetry, written in Latvian.

Since the late 1970s, he translated numerous volumes of poetry and fiction by Imants Ziedonis, Vizma Belševica, Knuts Skujenieks, Uldis Bērziņš, Sandra Kalniete, Jānis Elsbergs, Edvīns Raups, Inguna Jansone and other authors, as well as an anthology of Latvian poetry and a selection of Latvian folk-songs.

During the 1990s Kronbergs worked as a cultural attaché in the Latvian embassy in Stockholm.

Juris Kronbergs, the son of painter Rūdolfs Kronbergs, was born in Stockholm, Sweden.

He wrote poetry in both Swedish and Latvian, translating between the two languages.

In the second half of the seventies, he played drums in the Latvian bands Brothers of the Son (Saules Brāļi), Horsefly (Dundurs), and wrote poetry with the psychedelic rock group Ensemble of Cockroaches (Prusaku ansamblis).

His most acknowledged book is Vilks vienacis (Wolf One-Eye, 1996), which has been published in Swedish, English and Estonian.

In Sweden, Kronbergs was the most prolific translator of Latvian literature into Swedish.

In 1998, he was awarded the Order of Three Stars by the Republic of Latvia.

In 2007 he received the Annual Award for Literature for his significant contribution to Latvian literature, and in 2016 was nominated for the poetry prize for his collection "Uz balkona/Bet ja visu laiku..."

After his death in 2020, he was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the World Society of Free Latvians PBLA.

Juris Kronbergs translated poetry, prose and other works of many Latvian writers into Swedish.

Grāmatās iznākušas daudzu latviešu autoru dzejoļu izlases — pārstāvēti Vizma Belševica, Knuts Skujenieks, Imants Ziedonis, Aleksandrs Čaks, Edvīns Raups, Jānis Elsbergs, Inguna Jansone, Guntars Godiņš, Dzintars Sodums un citi autori.