Gunārs Saliņš, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Gunārs Saliņš

Latvian poet

Date of Birth: 21-Apr-1924

Place of Birth: Dobele, Dobele Municipality, Latvia

Date of Death: 29-Jun-2010

Profession: writer, poet

Nationality: Latvia

Zodiac Sign: Taurus

Gunars Salinš (April 21, 1924 – June 29, 2010) was a modernist poet within the Latvian lyric poetry tradition.
He became a leading voice of the "Hell's Kitchen artists" (Elles kekis) - a Latvian emigre artist community in the U.S.
which flourished in the 1950s and 60s, named after the neighborhood in New York where it originated.
In his youth, he was inspired by the Latvian poet Aleksandrs Caks and later by writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Guillaume Apollinaire, Federico García Lorca, and Dylan Thomas.
Salinš' imagery playfully explored transformational and metaphysical elements in this world and beyond, often incorporating his personal experiences with allusions to myth, art, and ancient Latvian folklore - a process he referred to as "orpheism".
Gunars Salinš' poetry was widely circulated within the Latvian diaspora post-WWII; later his work was rediscovered and championed in Latvia in the post-Soviet era.
In 2000, Salinš was awarded the Order of the Three Stars by the Republic of Latvia.