Paulina Pukytė
translated by Markas Aurelijus Piesinas video by Jevgenij Tichonov organized by Saulius Vasiliauskas Copyright: Vilnius Review All rights reserved
Debuts in Poetry that Reach for the Light
The three authors discussed in this review can hardly be introduced as young or debut writers: Mindaugas Kirka, Solveiga Masteikaitė, and Ramūnas Liutkevičius were well-known in artist circles before they had published any poetry books. These three poetry debuts are a hopeful gesture, as more artists who do not belong to the “young artist group”
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From the Vanity of High Society to Existential Depth
Rolandas Rastauskas’s latest book Venecija tiesiogiai (Venice Direct consists of several structural parts: a novel, several novellas, some short fictional texts, and a section that balances between poetry and prose dedicated to Dainius Liškevičius. Rastauskas’s work deliberately avoids the definition of a novel because with his artistic writing he creates a strong antithesis to what has so
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Kerry Shawn Keys: “I didn’t have that conscious discipline and I like the way it turned out.”
Kerry Shawn Keys, born in 1946 in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA, is an American poet and translator who moved to Vilnius after spending many years between the continents of both Americas, Asia, and Europe. He has more than forty books of poetry to his name and some twenty translated titles under his belt. He was a
Shoring Fragments Against His Ruin: Jonas Mekas, Words Apart and Others: Poems 1967 & 1998
It is with great pleasure that I can now introduce Jonas Mekas’ poetry to the English-speaking world. For a long time, Mekas was primarily known in America as a film critic, the founder (along with his brother Adolfas) of Film Culture magazine, a leading critic for The Village Voice. Certainly, people also talked about him as a major figure
Gintaras Grajauskas: “Quite often I find myself being naive…”
We met with poet, playwright, and translator Gintaras Grajauskas in the Klaipėda Drama Theater, where Gintaras works as artistic director, and sat down in his office filled with papers and props of all sorts. The fact that Grajauskas had a difficult time making coffee for himself (after successfully brewing a cup for me) is a
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Aivaras Veiknys
Mammoth Hunting Creation, when there is no creation. Everything is lived. —Vladas Šimkus All of this from longing —Sigitas Parulskis Beyond the highway: grass, a meadow where burdock sent down roots, sharp spades rang out, the animals moaned, bright lights and their reflectors formed a
Mammoth Hunting: “if you want to live beautifully, you have to perish a hundred times”
Aivaras Veiknys is a well-known poet of the younger generation whose work has been recognized with important Lithuanian literary awards. Mamuto medžioklė (Mammoth Hunting) is Veiknys’s fourth book, and I would say it is seminal: in it, the essential features of Veiknys’s poetics take shape and his distinctive aesthetic program unfolds. I must confess that in the
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The Spirituality of Conservation: The Life Work of Dr. Birutė Galdikas
In the rain forests of Borneo, observing orangutans in their natural habitat for half a century, Dr. Birutė Galdikas absorbed an important lesson: “Without spirituality your research will not work.” She discovered the truth of spiritual forces in the jungle. “We humans are not primates, we are monkeys,” she continued. “Our success is because we
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Valdas Papievis: “I must spend long periods of time doing nothing to get in the mood for writing”
My first meeting with writer Valdas Papievis, currently a resident of Paris, occurred during his sojourn in Vilnius in late summer. We met – symbolically – at an outdoor café near the monument to Romain Gary. We discussed many matters over a glass of wine but eventually decided that the questions for this interview best
