Leons Briedis Writer

Leons Briedis (born December 16, 1949 in Madona District, Latvia) is a Latvian poet, a novelist, an essayist, a literary critic and publisher, translator of prose and poetry from Latin, Russian, English, Romance languages (Romanian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italia, Catalan, Rhaeto-Romanic), Swahili (of Bantu peoples), Albanian a. o. languages. He is also an author of several musicals produced on the radio and staged at the biggest theatres in Latvia, script writer (author of several scripts, one short-length film is produced), has written much for children (poems, prose, plays), author of song texts (in collaboration with the componist Raimonds Pauls texts for appr. 150 songs), has translated 10 plays staged at Latvian theatres and rendered in verse opera librettos (e.g., the opera by B. Britten "The Small Chimney-Sweep").