The poet, architect, and traveller Tomas S. Butkus (Slombas) rarely has work published, but when his books appear, they turn into an event. Ežerožemė (Lakeland), written from 1997 to 2020, reveals that Butkus’s poetry has absorbed a fair dose of the sweeping spirit typical of the first ten years of Lithuania’s independence. In the early 1990s, […]
A Modern Poetic Atlas Read More »
Aquarium By The River we don’t have to wade into the river to take mouthfuls of blue so blindingly distant belonging to the time when water was vision Mingė’s Poem no one sits in the barge any longer just rampant motors of arthropoda tapping at the window-sill of a grocery spiders picking up bottles
We’re having this virtual chat during a worldwide lockdown—people are urged to stay inside, wear masks in public places, practice social distancing, and take any other necessary precautions. So I’d like to begin by asking you this: how do you spend your time in the midst of a slower world? Did all of this have
Vaiva Grainytė: I feel like the quarantine made me return to my “inner roots” Read More »
translated by Rimas Uzgiris video by Jevgenij Tichonov organized by Saulius Vasiliauskas Copyright: Vilnius Review All rights reserved
Tomas S. Butkus – Men Read More »
evening at the grandparents’ house, I enter the room press the switch and the graveyards will no longer be lit, press it press it, you can’t predict anything, just press this white button, this almost invisible button, here where stairs lead to the loft, and alien feet swiftly run off maybe it’s a post-war child, head
Lithuanian literature awards can be characterized by seasonality. Spring and autumn are a time for poetry, while winter is the season for picking the best books of the year. Of course, seasonality is not the only aspect that allows the classification of literary awards. More importantly, prizes differ in both their function and their meaning.
Lithuanian Literature Awards: Monotony, Monopoly, Scandals, and Vitality Read More »
INTRODUCTION In 2002 I wrote an article for Tiltas (the British-Lithuanian Society journal) on ‘Why being Lithuanian is so important to me.’ So while in 2020 I could flesh out the initial rough sketch outline, and fill it in with further cultural insights from eighteen years of living, I feel that in light of what’s happening in
How Covid-19 is asking us to re-evaluate belonging Read More »
Writing that deals with reconstructing distant time periods is especially popular in contemporary Lithuanian literature. Such literature is usually called “historical.” And it is a logical choice of words: historical periods, in particular, provide narratives and characters with unique undertones, and they motivate and add meaning to the whole plot. On the other hand, in
The Fetishization of Historical Periods, or Undinė Radzevičiūtė’s Weimar-Era Berlin Read More »
Beauty is Painful, Beauty is Evil 1929 I. “Would you like to see the catalog?” asked the tattoo artist, Joseph Hildebrandt. “I would,” said Walter. “Hilda, take off your clothes and come over here,” said the tattoo artist. Only a curtain separated the rooms, so there was no need to raise one’s voice. Probably, the
Undinė Radzevičiūtė Read More »
We may regard Enrika Striogaitė as one such cultural participant that you may run into at many art places but never really get to know her. For many years now this poet, author of documentaries, and journalist has managed to appear in public with great stealth. In one of her rare interviews, she once stated
An Antidote to Stereotypes Read More »
