It is interesting to observe the increasingly personal nature of Lithuanian poetry and its various expressions and themes – to observe how the poetic tradition has changed since the mid-twentieth century, when Aesopian language replaced Soviet realism, or when irony permeated the public discourse. Later, postmodern games appeared, which are now almost entirely replaced by […]
There’s no place like home Read More »
Tomas Venclova, the esteemed poet, scholar, and translator, has just released his third collection of poetry in English translation. So in addition to Winter Dialogue (1997, Northwestern University Press, tr. Diana Senechal) and The Junction (2008, Bloodaxe Books, tr. Senechal and Ellen Hinsey), we now have The Grove of the Eumenides. This time, I had
Whatever Else, Speak: An Interview with Tomas Venclova Read More »
*** I don’t recall without a doubt, Perhaps a woman’s words: don’t cry. That’s all. Candles snuffed out. Arnas, you can open your eyes. But I’m running with my eyes closed. I’m late, and can’t remember to where. And the snow – the snow falls composed In A minor shifting to C major with flair.
Two of the most important poetry books to appear in Lithuania in 2025 are Marialė (Cantus Mariales) by Giedrė Kazlauskaitė (b. 1980) and Seismografas (Seismograph) by Marius Burokas (b. 1977). Both writers belong to the middle generation of Lithuanian poets. For both, this is their fifth poetry book. Both are also active and well-known figures
This novel explores an alternative timeline where the oppressive power of the Soviet Union was never dissolved, and Lithuania remained one of its colonies. 14 June Hello! It’s me, A.G. You can call me Asta. This is my diary. If you are reading these words, please close it right this second and put it
Valdas Papievis (b. 1962) is a Lithuanian expatriate author of numerous acclaimed novels, laureate of the National Prize for Culture and Arts, and a cherished name in his homeland’s literary scene, whose every new release is met with excitement. For more than 20 years, Papievis has been living in Paris, which appears as a vivid
Stuck in time, out of place Read More »
*** you can call it the sea because emptiness is frightening it’s black and deadly you can’t encompass or imagine it you can’t let it in the predatory bones of a whale stick out from the sand of the shore the scattered sand of an hourglass where time does not belong to us ***
3 Wild beaches, there isn’t a soul – it’s too far to come here for the summer vacationers. Just cliffs, with springs running through them, merging into little crystalline waterfalls, the rivers of which go to the sea, meeting with one another, parting, once again meeting – water and sand graffiti; after looking closer, it’s
Baby My baby’s down with a stuffy nose, sleepless for the second night in a row. I’ve heard that stifled thoughts can clog the sinuses, the body conjures a disease, the immune response, and the cure – if you will it and believe it, program yourself and meditate – and you’ll be right as rain,
Kristina Tamulevičiūtė Read More »
Mindaugas Nastaravičius is a Lithuanian poet, playwright, and journalist whose poetry books set themselves apart. For instance, his second poetry collection Mo includes various poems that are playful and are written with many different structures, for example, three-line poems and sonnets, and some poems are even shorter than the titles themselves. In the third collection,
