Inga Žolude
The Latvian prose writer Inga Žolude (b. 1984) received a master’s degree in English from the University of Latvia. She studied English literature at Southern Illinois University through the Fulbright Program and worked as a project coordinator and manager in the field of culture and education. She is currently studying for her doctorate at the University of Latvia. She has been a member of the Writers’ Union in Latvia since 2010.
Zolude has had her works published in various periodicals, and her debut novel Silta zeme (Warm Earth) was published in 2008. Stories and excerpts from Silta zeme have been translated and published in anthologies in English, German, French, Swedish, Polish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Czech. She received the European Union Prize for Literature 2011 for her short story collection A Solace for Adam’s Tree, which will be translated in Hungarian, Czech and Bulgarian. Zolude regularly reviews works by Latvian and foreign authors. She has also translated poetry by Philip Larkin and Robert Crawford, among others. She received a special award from the cultural magazine Rīgas Laiks (Riga Times) in 2007. She has taken part in many literary and cultural projects and has received several grants, including the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Baltic Sleipnir Grant. Her latest novel, Sarkanie bērni (Red Children), has won Inga Zolude both the annual prize of the Writers’ Union of Latvia and Raimonds Gerkens’ Novel Prize.
Inga’s Tramlines story about Brussels is available to read or listen to in Latvian and English for free on the Gimbal iPhone app.