Conversation about French literature - between the classics and variegated ephemeral butterflies 2016-03-30
March, throughout the world is known as a month of Francophony. French culture has been pulling and attracting Lithuanians since the interwar period, when Kaunas - the Provisional Capital - was developing and had an ambition of becoming little Paris. We invited translator Jonė Ramunytė to talk about France from the Lithuanian perspective. She has been translating French literature into Lithuanian language for over two decades and is a true Francophone.
Conversation with Valdas Papievis about Paris - the white city, which insensibly sucks you in... 2016-02-28
We could say that possibilities of being are the topic of Valdas Papievis (1962) oeuvre, the leitmotif connecting his works. Writer has been living in France for more than 20 years, and thus authentically experiencing the country's daily life and feeling its pulse. He is one of the most relevant people to talk to in order to grasp the French present and being of mankind in general.
Tales from the rough reality 2015-11-26
M. Sauka collection of short stories - Roughly (Grubiai, 2015, Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla) - is a poignant and open look of a young artist at himself, those around him, objects and phenomena, full of humor and irony. M. Sauka reveals the rules, stereotypes and superstitions that exist in life and creative work. Maybe that is why his short stories are full of absurd situations and limitary states. When reading a book, one feels constantly surprised by the author’s language play and ability to see unexpected details in everyday life.
Time for one's own bees 2015-11-18
Donaldas Kajokas knows the world, life, language - that is why the texts live not in one form, not in one meaning. They invite, asking to pause, to return, and to be read once again. While higher mathematics is very simple, "terribly basic:/two times two for her always equals/ four (as much as you have)" (p. 73), in poetry it takes on a different quality and turns into linguistic quantity - content, which is covered with more than one cover. It is time to open it, while it is still November, while it is evening, while the world still can be vague and unexplained.
To breathe with the soul of a woman 2015-11-14
V. Pilipauskaitė-Butkienė book of poems "I breathe" (Kvėpuoju, 2015, Vilnius: Lietuvos rašytojų sąjungos leidykla) is a very open and also a fragile poetry of woman's soul. In the book the author identifies with the women talking and tells their stories, which are often shocking. She not only sums up her own experience but also the experience of many women.
To be (with) human 2015-11-10
Valdas Papievis novel "Odilė, or the airport loneliness" is for anyone in autumn, on the month of November, who does not want anything more - while looking at the storm clouds carried by wind - only that "at least one sister or brother, who had opened their hearts to the Lord... Would pray for us all... For us all, visiterus."
Writer Aldona Ruseckaitė, "Žemaitė is not a boring grandma with a headscarf" 2015-11-05
Quite recently, the writer Aldona Ruseckaitė presented her books - "Žemaitė's Secret" and "Better (not) to Forget" - instead of other authors' (something we all have gotten used to) at Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum in Kaunas. The visitors found themselves in a tastefully prepared literary performance, in which the Lithuanian literature classic Žemaitė came to life not as a public figure and classic, but as a mother and a woman tormented by love, guilt and longing.
Neither pilaf, nor spies 2015-11-03
It is neither a historical, nor spy, nor detective nor even a novel. When reading "Vilnius Pilaf" I felt as if I was talking to my grandfather. After noticing that someone is listening to him at least partially, he would start telling stories. Since I did not know his friends he would tell me everything about them, sometimes would pause to enjoy the memory and then continue telling.
Conversation with writer Donaldas Kajokas - mode of life and being according to literary contexts 2015-10-26
The Lithuanian National Prize laureate Donaldas Kajokas (1953) creates poetry, writes a wide range and variable volumes of prose texts of different genres and translates - his work areas are broad, the roads branch, but in the end everything is merged in literature. For the conversation with D. Kajokas, the author has chosen thoughts from his works - novel "Ežeras ir kiti jį lydintys asmenys" (Lake and other persons accompanying it, 2012) and collection of poems "Apie vandenis, medžius ir vėjus" (On the water, the trees and the winds, 2015). Thus, literature "asks" the writer...
