Interviews

It’s a coincidence that DANUTĖ KALINAUSKAITĖ’S novel Baltieji prieš juoduosius (Whites Against Blacks, 2023) and JURGA TUMASONYTĖ’S novel Naujagimiai (The Newborn, 2023) were released around the same time, with similar cover designs and themes. Despite representing different generations and styles, critics have compared the two authors’ works with one another. The books have also received widespread praise. With this […]

Laima Vincė: Tell me about your Lithuanian heritage. Jocelyn: My Lithuanian heritage is all on my father’s side. My father was born in a small village called Gelvonai in Central Lithuania. His parents emigrated to the United States in 1930 when he was three. His parents were peasant farmers. His father came first—having spent the first eight years

Lithuania Is My Spiritual Home A Conversation with Jonas Zdanys   Laima Vincė: Tell me about your Lithuanian heritage. Jonas Zdanys: I’m the child of Lithuanians who came to the United States in 1949. My father was from Kybartai and my mother was from Kaunas. They met in a refugee camp in Germany. They were married there,

A Modern-Day Book Smuggler In Conversation with Birutė Putrius   Laima Vincė: Tell me about your Lithuanian heritage. Birutė Putrius: That’s an interesting question and one that I’ve been thinking about for years. Even in my book Lost Birds, the very first story is called “Becoming American” because many who came from the displaced person’s camps had one

Dear Anita, please tell us about yourself. How and when did you take up translation work? I was born in the Northern Netherlands, in the city of Groningen. I attended a secondary school in Southern Limburg before returning to Groningen, where I studied Slavic languages and literature at university. In 1983, I graduated with a

Laima Vincė: How do you identify yourself as a writer? Samuel Bak: I am a Yiddish writer who writes in English.   Laima Vincė: You have lived in many countries, in various cultures, and on different continents. How would you define your identity? Samuel Bak: This is a tricky existentialist question because it contains a lot of components. Are you a

Laima Vincė: Tell me about your Lithuanian heritage. Antanas Sileika: My Lithuanian heritage is very typical for people of my generation. I had parents who fled Lithuania in the middle of 1944 and then hoped to return but didn’t. I have a brother who was born in Lithuania, a brother who was born in a displaced persons

Laima Vincė: What doors did learning Yiddish open for you? Ellen Cassedy: I started studying Yiddish in 1989 when my mother died, rather young. It was a way to remember her even though she didn’t actually speak Yiddish.   Laima Vincė: She didn’t? Ellen Cassedy: She would sort of sprinkle a word here and there into her speech. I

Laima Vincė: Thank you for agreeing to this interview. This is a big deal for the Lithuanian Writers Union and Vilnius Review magazine to have this opportunity to speak with you. Lidia: It’s a big deal for me too.   Laima Vincė: Thank you for that. Lidia: And I’m feeling that you look so much like me.   Laima Vincė: You definitely

Laima Vincė: Can you tell me about how your expertise as a Medievalist influences your poetry? Halyna Kruk: The literature of the Ukrainian baroque is my area of special interest. In Ukrainian literature the baroque period spans from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries.   Laima Vincė: How does your work as a scholar of Ukrainian baroque literature