Editorial
Warm greetings to all of you, our critical readers and charitable critics. More than once I’ve been asked (as I’m sure all of you have as well): Where can I read your poetry? Your prose? Who are your most interesting writers? What is Lithuanian literature like? What is most important to the writers in your country?
Danutė Kalinauskaitė
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- Fiction
I had never taken any interest in those distant generations. Why would I have? What did I care about people buried one on top of another in layers in far-away villages, buried in sand and clay? Overgrown with ferns. Their graves fallen in, sucked in by the earth. Burned. Vanished in Brazil and the Americas. On clouds of down in paradise or in the cauldrons of hell. For eternity.
A person cut adrift from my roots, living only for today, yes, but now... Am I now going to drink from a pool of water I'd spat into? Am I going to try and retrieve all the names that have disappeared into oblivion until I've retrieved them all? All the voices? All the bones?
Vanda Juknaitė
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- Archive
Loreta: Once I gave my mother to smell a flower that hadn't yet bloomed. She said it didn't smell like anything, but to me it smelled green. Many seeing people say that water doesn't have a scent, but I smell it. Even two different things without scents, they smell. Seeing people say those things don't have a scent. I agree that there is no scent, but they are scentless differently. If they are scentless differently then it means there is some kind of a smell.
The First Greenery
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- Debut
Vilnius Review will now feature a new column. Before the year ends, we plan to present 10 young poets and prose writers who haven't yet published books but who have been noted for their involvement in the literary scene, including periodicals, literary readings, and youth contests.
Algimantas Mackus (1932–1964)
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- Archive
Cold so cold I want only the cold
green September moonlight,
and that map copper inscribed
intaglio, to blend in with the blood.
Grey all grey for I want all of the grey
September sunrise sacrifice,
and that map in an uncovered
network of bone, to pour out of the blood.
The First Note: An Interview with Paul Jaskunas
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- Interviews
Small presses are playing an important role, of course; so many of them are flourishing and doing wonderful things. But for us to reach ‘utopia’, as you say, we will need a more literary culture. I actually think that the situation in Lithuania, in this regard, is much better than in the United States. When I was living there, I recall Adamkus or someone going to the Writers Union to announce his intention of running for a second term. In the U.S., politicians don’t care what the writers think.
Three Musketeers of Baltic Literature: Translator Takes the Blame, Always
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- Interviews
Rimas: We work in languages that almost no one else reads. It can be a little different if you're doing French or Spanish, where a lot of people can read the original. But for us, if it doesn't work in translation, that's it – nobody's interested. The authors often aren't known. So, you can't go by reputation, and they can't read the original, see how good it is. All they have is your translation. So it has to work on its own.
