Zigmunds Skujiņš, one of Latvia’s leading writers of the late twentieth century, was born in the Latvian capital, Riga, in 1926. Author of ten novels and fifteen short story collections, Skujiņš has had his works translated into many languages (over seven million copies of his works have been sold in more than a dozen languages).

Skujiņš has received many honorary titles, including Emeritus Member of the Latvian Academy of Sciences (1998), and many awards, including the Latvian Annual Prize for Literature (2003), the Aleksandrs Čaks Prize (2005), and the Latvian Government Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2007).