Māris Čaklais (16 June 1940 – 13 December 2003) was a Latvian poet, writer, and journalist.

He translated to Latvian Bertolt Brecht, Paul Celan, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, and Rainer Maria Rilke, among others.

Čaklais worked at the newspapers "Literatūra un Māksla" (Literature and Art) and "Literatūra un Māksla Latvijā” (Literature and Art in Latvia), and for the Radio Free Europe.

In 2000, Čaklais was a member of the Latvian delegation to the European writers project Literature Express Europe 2000.

Following re-establishing of Latvian independence in 1990, Čaklais received the Fridtjof Nansen International Award (1994), the Latvian Annual Literature Award (2000), the Order of the Three Stars (2000), and the Herder Prize (2002).