Jānis Peters, born in 1939, is a Latvian poet, columnist, politician, and diplomat. From 1947 until 1958, Peters studied in Liepāja, later he was a stage worker and director's assistant at the Liepāja Theatre (1957-1963), worked for the Liepāja regional newspaper, and was the editor at the prose department of Zvaigzne newspaper (1967-1972). Peters' first set of poems Kaist pīlādzis sniegā/Rowan Tree in the Snow was published in 1961. His first poetry collection Dzirnakmens/Grindstone was published in 1968, the same year he was accepted in the Writers' Union of the Latvian SSR, where he held positions as secretary of the committee (1974-1976), poetry consultant (1974), etc. During the National Awakening, Peters was actively involved in the social and political events, and was among the central figures in the movement. Peters was one of the founders and leaders of the Popular Front. After Latvia regained its independence, he was the first Latvian ambassador to post-Soviet Russia. Peters is the director of the Krišjānis Valdemārs Foundation (since 1998). In 2008, Peters received the Latvian Cicero Award in National Politics for his participation in the furthering of the ideas of the Awakening movement. Jānis Peters is the author of six collections of poems, songs for theatre, a libretto, and many works about important figures in Latvian culture, including a book on the composer Raimonds Pauls, the author of more than 100 songs with Peter's lyrics.  Since 1990, Peters is the honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Latvia.