Reviews

In Lithuanian literature, as in probably many Central and Eastern European countries, there is a strong interest in local mythology and in reimagining various elements of folklore. In both fiction and poetry, motifs from folk songs, tales, and incantations are being revived and made relevant to the present day. In these works Baltic deities interact […]

We are living in a time marked by a pervasive sense of looming catastrophe – of an approaching end of the world. Yet this feeling is hardly new in Lithuanian literature. From the interwar poetry of Jonas Aistis, who evoked the image of a “dying Europe,” to Tomas Venclova’s visions of forgotten utopian enclaves in

Rimantas Kmita is the author of two poetry collections, two works of literary criticism, two plays, and three novels. The plays and novels are all set in the tumultuous years around Lithuania’s declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. The first novel, Pietinia Kronikas (Southside Chronicle) became a best-seller and won multiple awards.

It is interesting to observe the increasingly personal nature of Lithuanian poetry and its various expressions and themes – to observe how the poetic tradition has changed since the mid-twentieth century, when Aesopian language replaced Soviet realism, or when irony permeated the public discourse. Later, postmodern games appeared, which are now almost entirely replaced by

Valdas Papievis (b. 1962) is a Lithuanian expatriate author of numerous acclaimed novels, laureate of the National Prize for Culture and Arts, and a cherished name in his homeland’s literary scene, whose every new release is met with excitement. For more than 20 years, Papievis has been living in Paris, which appears as a vivid

Mindaugas Nastaravičius is a Lithuanian poet, playwright, and journalist whose poetry books set themselves apart. For instance, his second poetry collection Mo includes various poems that are playful and are written with many different structures, for example, three-line poems and sonnets, and some poems are even shorter than the titles themselves. In the third collection,

Sometimes poets are criticized for always writing the same book, but that certainly does not apply to Giedrė Kazlauskaitė. As you read her work, an unusual impression emerges – a single person’s life seems endless and multilayered. Her fifth book, Marialė (Cantus Mariales), confirms this once again. Each of Kazlauskaitė’s books conceptually reveal a different

The poet, translator, literary critic, public intellectual, and long-time editor of Vilnius Review Marius Burokas is a figure that holds an important place in Lithuania’s cultural landscape. I first learned about him through social media, where he shared photographers’ works, musical discoveries, and drafts of his own translations and poems. Later, Burokas’s social media account

After nearly thirty years since the publication of his first poetry book Rabi, which appeared in 1998 after winning the First Book Contest organized by the Lithuanian Writers’ Union, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas makes a powerful return with his second poetry collection Gruntiniai vandenys (Groundwaters). This book also includes prose-poetry and poetry translations. The texts flow seamlessly

Bukolikos (2024) is the sixth original poetry collection by poet, literary scholar, and translator Erika Drungytė. She made her debut in 1998 with the collection Tiksli žiema (Exact winter), establishing herself as a master of nature and domestic reflection, who’s able to capture moments of everyday life infused with deeper existential insight. Drungytė’s sensitivity to