Bio

Zinta Aistars is a bilingual writer, born in the United States of immigrant parents from Latvia. Latvia is one of three Baltic States, losing its independence to the Soviet Union in World War II, regaining it in 1991. Latvian was Zinta’s first language, one of the oldest languages still spoken today, and she holds dual citizenship. Her first three books are in the Latvian language; her fourth, still in progress, is in English. Her work (in both languages) appears in many publications, print and online. Zinta is also founder and editor-in-chief of The Smoking Poet.

She is a publications editor and writer for a health care organization in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and was an editor and writer for LuxEsto (for which she still freelances), the Kalamazoo College alumni magazine for seven years prior to that. Her work has appeared in the Kalamazoo Guide, Greater Guide of Southwest Michigan, Kindred Spirits Magazine, Kalamazoo Gazette, Southwest Michigan Living, County Wide News, Encore, Welcome Home, Parade of Homes, Second Wave Media, the Latvian newspaper Laiks, and the Latvian literary periodical, Jauna Gaita. She has published poetry, travel essays, stories, and articles in the United States, Latvia, England, Sweden, Germany, and Australia. Her work appears on many eZines - including Xelas Magazine, Cezanne's Carrot, Amsterdam Scriptum, Boston Literary Magazine, Outsider Ink, Ghoti Fish, Menda City Review, Megaera Magazine, T-Zero, Fiction Attic, Impact Times, Ash Canyon Review, Saucy Vox, ThothWeb, Flash Me Magazine, Spoiled Ink, 63 Channels, Her Circle Ezine, Ascent Aspirations Magazine, The Redbridge Review, River Walk Journal, Flashquake, milk magazine, The Surface, BookCrossing, Serene Light, Word Riot, Burning Word, The Moon, insolent rudder, Bobbing Around, The Sidewalk's End, coilMagazine, Poems Niederngasse, The Paper, Poetry Life & Times, QuietPoly Writer's Magazine, Gently Read Literature, Midwest Book Review, Write Sight and others. Zinta has done media relations work for The Stulberg Organization (Stulberg International String Competition) and was also poetry editor at Her Circle Ezine and on the editorial board of insolent rudder. She is the poetry judge for Press 53 Open Awards 2009 and also served as a judge for the Fourteenth Annual Kalamazoo Gazette Community Literary Awards 2010.

Zinta is the recipient of the J. Jaunsudrabins Latvian Literary Award, the Erik Raisters Young Latvian Writer's Award, and the Goppers Fund Latvian Literary Award. She has won two prizes in both the short story and poetry categories in the Kalamazoo Community Literary Awards 2000, and again First Prize in Poetry in the 2005 Kalamazoo Community Literary Awards. Zinta received a Merit Award in 2005 for her work in communications and media relations.

Zinta

Artist Statement

Writing is not a conscious choice I make. Writing is an expression of who I am, how I see the world, and how I move through it. When life becomes bigger than I am, writing is also my healing. It is how I connect to myself, to the divine, to others.

We live in a time when tomorrow is not assured. I don’t write for publication, even as I am grateful that I have been able to achieve a career as a writer, making my living using my art. If writers once wrote as a gesture toward immortality, it would be foolish to think in that way in today’s constantly changing circumstances. It truly is the journey and not the destination. The joy is the act of creation.

And so, writing is my labor of love. The words on these pages are the shape of my heart and my life spirit.