A few minutes shy of 10:00 pm, I rolled into the parking lot of Hotel Aviv in Dresden, after thirteen hours of driving from Lithuania, through Poland, and into East Germany, the former DDR. At the reception desk, I made the linguistic shift to German from Lithuanian, before that English in the United States, and […]
Nostalgia: A Meditation on East and West Read More »
Midday Rome Did that old rogue from Dresden, Germany tell the truth when he said the dead stroll the streets of Rome and their souls spoke to him in a Trastevere trattoria? They were a pleasant elderly pair who came from the cold seas above. His briefcase meant enough stuffed with the dusty scores of
Antanas A. Jonynas Read More »
Saulius Tomas Kondrotas is an exceptional phenomenon in Lithuanian literature. In 1977, when Brezhnevian stagnation was in its second decade, he made his debut with the memorable short story collection Pasaulis be ribų (A World Without Boundaries). He inspired and taught his own and subsequent generations to trespass boundaries and expand them. “To shed off the harness
A Collection That Has Changed the Notion of Literature Read More »
The recent years have given us an increased number of poetic debuts by authors from varying age groups. Even though the reader with a pulse on the Lithuanian poetry scene will find little to surprise them, it must be said that the young generation of poets, who were born in the Lithuanian independence era, are
Naivism and Nihilism: The Young Poets Read More »
Since after the release of your latest book you have been frequently interviewed, I’ve been wondering how to begin our conversation. I am interested in your habits, rituals, and daily life as a poet. Is your usual schedule structured and shaped, like a sonnet, or is there room left for improvisation and spontaneity? To be
Antanas A. Jonynas: “As you go through life, you see the world repeating itself.” Read More »
On a beautiful hot day in early July 1941, at a bend in the village road that leads out of Panemunėlis towards Kavoliškis, the white armbanders—local Nazi collaborators—arrived on bicycles. They left their bicycles in the forest across the road from an isolated farmstead that belonged to the farmer, Petras Šarkauskas, and began digging a
Upon opening your new book Slippery Red Palace, the reader is first met with a photograph. The picture is taken from a personal archive and shows a girl sitting on the grass and looking straight at the photographer. The plastic bag seen behind her can be read as a symbol. How do you interpret this picture
Ieva Toleikytė: “I managed to love my mistakes and embarrassments” Read More »
KAOLIN For Kristina G., a story about another Kristina. Only the names are the same. We imagine the people who lived at the turn of the last century as naive. This idea has been suggested in old films where the people walk around making strange movements, leap comically, and waddle about. It would be a
Saulius Tomas Kondrotas Read More »
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has been called the most unlikely of leaders—a stay at home mother of two and former English teacher with no political experience, no outside support, and with only her open heart and authenticity to rely on. When Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s husband, the political vlogger Sergei Tikhanovsky, was jailed for running for president, she stepped
I Made My Choice: Svetlana Tikhanovskaya Speaks Out in Vilnius Read More »
Ieva Toleikytė’s name is well-established in the Lithuanian literary scene. She is an excellent translator (Toleikytė translates from Danish) and an established writer. In 2009, her debut book Garstyčių namas (House of Mustard) won the First Book Contest and was included in the Top 12 Most Creative Lithuanian Books of that year. Now, Toleikytė comes forth with
The Spectacular Poetry of Creation and Cessation Read More »
