Linda Mence

Linda Mence (1992) is a Latvian poet, visual artist and one of the editors of Punctum literary magazine. She has received MA in Printmaking from the Art Academy of Latvia, graduating with a series of drawings of 16 virtues from "Ordo Virtutum" by Hildegard of Bingen. Her first poetry collection "Apļi" ("Circles", Neputns, 2023) received the Ojārs Vācietis Literary Prize in Poetry and the Annual Latvian Literary Award for the best debut. Linda also writes poetry for children, her book "Kosmoss ir virs bēniņiem" ("The Space Above the Attic") was published by Liels un mazs in 2024. She has translated the poetry of Edgar Lee Masters, H.D., Christina Rossetti and others. Linda has a particular interest in early modernist poetry, eerie children's literature and the history of medicine. She is very often the only person laughing about her jokes, and the others are laughing about her laughing - and that is fine.