Gytis Norvilas is a well-known literary figure in the world of Lithuanian literature. The cultural fields that interest Norvilas can best be described in an overview of his work—as the editor of the weekly Literatūra ir Menas magazine, a poet, an essayist and a translator. His first book of poems, Akmen-skeltės (Shards of Stone) (2002), received the Jaunojo Jotvingio
The poetry of spatialization Read More »
Two weeks of festivals, basta, basta, done: dobrdan, dobrdan belo kavo belo vino bella ljubljana after two weeks in loveljana after polyglot poems after gormless languages it’s so quiet, you can hear a mouse shiver under a hedge yowls yearning the for the Bruxelles-ma-belles sirens the neighbor’s mournful pipes echo through the wall, midnight trains rustling,
“Here’s my little, thin book,” I murmur diminutively, much as Žagrakalytė might, while flicking through Agnė Žagrakalytė’s barely 60-page poetry collection, Štai. I also consider how we use “Štai” (there) in everyday speech: with pride (“there, look at what I accomplished!”), when showing something to someone (“There, look at that castle”), with praise (“look at that
Poetry Vulnerable to Rabies and Vanity Read More »
1. A number of essays from Uosto fuga were published earlier. Some of them appeared between 1998 and 2016, attracted considerable interest, and sparked discussions in the public space. What prompted you to put them in a book and what principle lies behind the ordering of the essays? Did you want to emphasize the multiplicity of voices and
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas: “Love for a Place Helps Us to Overcome Loneliness” Read More »
A scholar in Lithuanian studies and a long-time lecturer at Vilnius University, the director of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, the organizer of the annual Literatūros salos (Literary Islands) literary festival, a participant in and head of various rallies/gatherings focused on Lithuanian studies, and the 2016 winner of the Bronius Savukynas Prize awarded
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas: Essays in Black and White Read More »
Esther’s Scissors I’ll call her by her biblical name—Esther—I’m allowed to now. That’s the name the rabbi used, not so long ago, when he recited the prayers calling her into eternity and sprinkled the first three handfuls of earth onto her shrunken body, a body already cut off from the world of the living. In
Mindaugas Kvietkauskas Read More »
This year marks Judita Vaičiūnaitė’s 80th birthday, and sixteen years since she passed away. She is not forgotten by any means. Her reputation, if anything, has grown. An essay dedicated to her in this year’s Poetry Spring anthology, a day of lectures, discussions and readings in her honor organized by the Lithuanian Institute of Literature and
To Gaze Through Clouds of Dust Read More »
*** Sunday will come. We will cover our bread with kisses and butter. We will scan, haphazardly, the circus posters and wander through the motley noisy city of sun like two naughty children. When midday comes like dust between the teeth, we’ll fill our bottles with tawny beer, and surrounded by bar smoke
Judita Vaičiūnaitė Read More »
Words come from the lump in the solar plexus. Then, assisted by the hand and a ball-point pen, they are laid down on paper. (Vytautas Stankus). What inspires poetry today? What new qualities do poets observe in the writing of their contemporaries? These are questions I ask Vytautas Stankus, Nerijus Cibulskas, and Mantas Balakauskas, three
Literature Used to Be Better Entertainment Read More »
