Artis Ostups

Artis Ostups (1988, Latvia) is a poet, critic and researcher. He works for the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, and has been editor-in-chief of the online magazine Punctum since 2014. He is currently studying comparative literature at Tartu University, having previously studied philosophy at the University of Latvia. His first poetry collection, Biedrs Sniegs (Comrade Snow, 2010), received immediate acclaim from readers on publication, and went on to be nominated for the Annual Literary Award in the best debut category. His second book of poems, Fotogrāfija un šķēres (Photography and Scissors, 2013), has been widely reviewed by literary critics and attentive readers. Ostups’ writing has been characterised as clear and precise, powerful and distilled. He uses words to create sharp images that connect history to the present, imagination and awareness of present experience.

He produces poetry which is unshowy and highly sensitive, framing exquisitely meaningful moments as photographs, pregnant with underlying contexts. Ostups’ third collection, Žesti (Gestures, 2016), consists entirely of prose poems, combining echoes of high modernism with contemporary expression in highly original ways. This collection was published in English by Ugly Duckling Presse in 2018. His poems have appeared in various anthologies across Europe and are available in languages including Croatian, Czech, Estonian, German, Lithuanian, Russian and Slovenian. He is currently working on his fourth poetry collection, which will feature both lyrical verse and prose poems.

*The literary residency in Ptuj is part of the Culture Moves Europe project, financed by the European Union.