Janis Sakurovs, who writes as 'Jimmy Saks', was born in Istra, Latvia, of Russian/Latvian parents and has published mainly in English and occasionally in Latvian. Before settling in Australia, he spent time in a number of displaced persons camps.
In Australia he came first to Barmera, South Australia, as a grape-picker, and after that worked near Mount Gambier. He moved to Victoria, and then to Queensland looking unsuccessfully for work, then decided he may as well try for the 'big smoke'. In Sydney he worked as a warder at the Long Bay Penitentiary, then found work with the Police Force where his ability with languages proved an asset in police work with migrants. The story of his time in the Force and the corruption he found there is disguised as fiction in his novel Vortex. On leaving the Police Force he worked for the New South Wales Railways.
Sakurovs has been active in community entertainments, singing, acting and writing sketches, has edited Banksnotes: Independent Monthly for Writers and has been a member of the Fellowship of Australian Writers (FAW). He has read at multicultural literary gatherings at the Performance Space, the Poets Union, Parramatta Town Hall and elsewhere.
