Vizma Belševica was a Latvian poet, writer and translator.
Background
Belševica"s father Jānis Belševics was a worker, and her mother Ieva Belševica (maiden name Cīrule) was a housewife. Vizma Belševica was born on May 30, 1931, in prewar Riga, then the capital of democratic Latvia, where she spent most of her childhood.
Education
Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.
Career
The family was relatively poor, as only one of the two spouses did paid work. Vizma"s father had drinking problems, which aggravated when during the Great Depression he lost his job as a baker.