The Fir Tree Issue of the Žoklis Magazine is here.
The magazine features poetry by Gints Aleksandrs Dreimanis, Linda Gabarajeva, Lote Vilma Vītiņa and Ivars Šteinbergs, as well as a poetic dedication by Andris Kalnozols and an experimental visual-textual work Gājiens co-created by Kirils Ēcis and painter Tatjana Kriveņkova. The Fir Tree issue likewise features the second part of ACID IS SWEET, a long poem by Lithuanian poet Mantas Gimžauskas in Emija Grigorjeva’s translation. The title poem of the issue is ARS POETICA, a four-line work by Jānis Rokpelnis. Meanwhile the azure appendix features Ieva Melgalve’s long poem Ievas Melgalves jobanā poēma.
The issue likewise features the second part of Gaston Bachelard’s essay The Dream of Flight in Lauris Veips’ translation. Kārlis Vērdiņš resumes the criticism series titled “100 Latvian poetry books ‘you must read before you die’” with a piece on Inga Gaile’s Migla (2012). Whereas the series in which different people are invited to reflect upon a single poem by a Latvian writer is continued by Didzis Ruicēns and Anna Auziņa. Lauris Veips continues the Classical Troubles series of commentaries.
In the issue’s editorial introduction Marija Luīze Meļķe offers a paraphrase of Borges, saying that “a magazine is a physical object in a physical world of objects. It is an aggregate of non-living symbols up until an appropriate reader opens its pages and the words – or, properly speaking, the poetry behind the words (as words are mere descriptive signs whereas poetry lurks from every corner and can manifest in front of you at any given time) – go atwitter and bloom into life, and what we experience is the rebirth of the word.”
The child of a group of young people, the Žoklis mostly literary magazine focuses on creative young people in all forms of art, promoting an interdisciplinary practice of writing and reading. As people from different fields and generations are invited to publish their pieces in Žoklis, there’s a diversity that ensures the vitality of the publication and brings diverse color to the fabric of Latvian culture. Five young literati – Raimonds Ķirķis, Marija Luīze Meļķe, Lauris Veips, Roberts Vilsons and Kirils Ēcis – are in charge of the magazine, which is published by the Žoklis association.
The magazine is on sale on the website and premises of the Neputns gallery on Tērbatas Street 49/51 as well as the largest stores of the Jānis Roze publishing house.
Supported by the State Cultural Capital Foundation.