Poetry Ride festival is touring in Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway on 24−29 November with the poets Jan Kaus (EST), Miia Toivio (FIN), Kārlis Vērdiņš (LV) and Gunnar Wærness (NO). The multilingual and multiple program has been compiled by a poet, translator and artistic director of Poetry Ride Guntars Godiņš, who also leads the meetings during the trip.

Poetry Ride has been riding already eight years in four different countries. This year is special: Poetry Ride heads for the first time to Norway and the focus is on the essential base, the education of translation. Translating poetry is one of the most challenging tasks in the field of literature and demands special skills for the creativity and the sensibility for the inner world of the lyrical text. In addition to writing poetry, the poets Kaus, Toivio, Vērdiņš and Wærness share a long experience in translating or editing poetry.

Poetry Ride goes to the universities of Daugavpils, Tartu, Eastern Finland and Tromsø and enable the meetings between the poets and the students of translation, literature and creative writing. There will be seminars concerning the art of translation at the universities. The opening of the exhibition "Poetry Ride - the first 7 years" at the Daugavpils University Library will be also part of the festival program.

Poetry Ride welcomes everyone also to the poetry reading evenings during the festival. You can hear poetry in an original language read by the poets and translated into the local language. The poems have been translated by Contra, Guntars Godiņš, Raija Hämäläinen, Jan Kaus, Jyrki Kiiskinen, Juris Kronbergs, Marja Leinonen, Øyvind Rangøy, Sigrid Tooming and Gunnar Wærness.

Poetry Rides thanks for the support and cooperation: Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, FILI, Norden, Rozentāls Society, Norla, Embassy of Norway in Tallinn, Embassy of Norway in Helsinki, Embassy of Latvia in Tallinn, Embassy of Finland in Riga, Finnish Institute in Estonia, Finnish-Norwegian Institute, Estonian Institute in Finland, Tartu Department of Estonian Writers' Union, University of Daugavpils, University of Eastern Finland, University of Tartu and University of Tromsø.