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The poet, critic and translator Kārlis Vērdiņš was born in 1979 in Riga and graduated in cultural theory from the Latvian Academy of Culture. Vērdiņš has a PhD in Literature from the University of Latvia (2009). Since 2007, he has been working at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia. Vērdiņš is also a member of the editorial team of the literary magazine Latvju Teksti.

He is the author of three poetry collections – Ledlauži (The Icebreakers, 2001), Biezpiens ar krējumu (Cottage Cheese with Cream, 2004) and Es (Me, 2008). Vērdiņš’ poetry has been translated into several languages and included in the anthology of young poets from Central and Eastern Europe A Fine Line (Arc Publications, 2004) and Six Latvian Poets (Arc Publications, 2011). Translations of his poems have been collected in separate volumes in Russian (2003), Polish (2009) and Czech (2012, forthcoming) as well as in various anthologies and magazines.

Vērdiņš has translated the works of T.S. Eliot, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Georg Trakl, Joseph Brodsky, Konstantin Biebl and other European and American poets, including Russian poets of Latvia.

His publications on literature include monographs The Social and Political Dimensions of the Latvian Prose Poem (Pisa, 2010) and Bastarda forma (Riga, 2011).

In 2001 and 2008, he received the newspaper Diena Culture Award; in 2006, the Copyright Infinity Award. Vērdiņš is also a recipient of the Poetry Prize 2008 (for Me) and Annual Literary Award 2007 for his book of children’s verse, Alphabet Soup.