Interviews

Laima Vincė Sruoginis was born in 1966 in Teaneck, NJ. She happens to be the granddaughter of Anicetas Simutis, the long-time Lithuanian consul general for the United States, who served Lithuania as a diplomat for 65 years throughout the years of the Soviet occupation and who also became Lithuania’s first ambassador to the United Nations. […]

Tomas Venclova, the esteemed poet, scholar, and translator, has just released his third collection of poetry in English translation. So in addition to Winter Dialogue (1997, Northwestern University Press, tr. Diana Senechal) and The Junction (2008, Bloodaxe Books, tr. Senechal and Ellen Hinsey), we now have The Grove of the Eumenides. This time, I had

Two of the most important poetry books to appear in Lithuania in 2025 are Marialė (Cantus Mariales) by Giedrė Kazlauskaitė (b. 1980) and Seismografas (Seismograph) by Marius Burokas (b. 1977). Both writers belong to the middle generation of Lithuanian poets. For both, this is their fifth poetry book. Both are also active and well-known figures

You belong to the same generation, having witnessed, participated, observed, and (re)told the same period and history. When I invited you to join this conversation, I was thinking that in the twenty-first century, we’re more and more affected by the rapid developments in the media, technology, and artificial intelligence, along with the war happening right

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