Meet the author

Juris Kronbergs.

Writer · Latvia · b. 1946

Juris Kronbergs: the Latvian-Swedish poet whose The Book of Clouds pairs real cloud science with daydream in twenty-five gentle poems for children who like to look up and wonder.

Juris Kronbergs (1946–2020) was a Latvian-Swedish poet and translator, born in Stockholm to a family that had fled the Soviet occupation of Latvia. He wrote chiefly in Latvian and was the most prolific translator of Latvian literature into Swedish, best known in his homeland for the poetry collection Vilks vienacis (Wolf One-Eye). His one book for children in this collection, The Book of Clouds, gathers twenty-five short poems about the sky that mix genuine meteorology with pure daydream, imagining the secret lives clouds might lead. Translated into English by Mara Rozitis and Richard O'Brien for the independent Emma Press and paired with Anete Melece's soft watercolour-and-collage skies, it is a gentle, thoughtful book that rewards slow reading and invites children to look up and wonder. A quietly lovely introduction to poetry as both play and observation.