or Roalds Dobrovenskis as his name is spelt in Latvian, is a Russian journalist, writer, editor and translator who was born in Jelec (Lipetsk district, Russia) in 1936. He now lives and works in Riga.

Dobrovenskiy attended the Central Music School in Moscow and graduated from the Moscow Conservatorium in 1975. His publications in Russian include books about the composers Musorgski and Borodin as well as stories and poems (“Sundial”, Chabarovsk, 1967).

Dobrovenskiy has served as an editor for the Latvian Publishing House “Liesma” in Riga and as the editor of the poetry and fiction sections and chief editor of the Latvian literary magazine “Daugava”. His novel “Archimagnus. Non-rhymed Chronicon” was published in «День и ночь» magazine (Denj i Noch, Russia, Krasnoyarsk) in 2002 and in Latvian in 2004 – translated by Talrids Rullis.

He is a member of both the Writer’s Union of Russia and the Latvian Writer’s Union and was awarded the For Lifetime Investment literature prize in 2006 by the latter. Dobrovenskiy has also translated some of the most significant Latvian poets of the 20^th century into Russian.