EPF Digital 2020 : 3 Lithuanian Poets
Video Interviews

EPF Digital 2020 presents presents new long-form video-interviews with poets from Lithuania, featuring Rimas Uzgiris, Dovilė Bagdonaitė and Aušra Kaziliūnaitė. View the full EPF 2020 online program here europeanpoetryfestival.com/2020

Supported by Lithuanian Cultural Institute and featured as part of the Maintenant series at 3am magazine.

Rimas Uzgiris is a poet, translator, and critic. He is the author of North of Paradise (Kelsay Books), and translator of Caravan Lullabies by Ilzė Butkutė, Then What by Gintaras Grajauskas, Now I Understand by Marius Burokas, The Moon is a Pill by Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, and Vagabond Sun by Judita Vaičiūnaitė. Uzgiris holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, and an MFA in creative writing. Recipient of a Fulbright Grant, a NEA Translation Fellowship, he teaches at Vilnius University.

Aušra Kaziliūnaitė is a writer, poet, journalist, film researcher, performer, philosopher and event host. She is the program coordinator of one of the Vilnius - “Books’ weekend” She received a BA in History and an MA in Religious Studies and has published four books of poetry in Lithuanian. She has received numerous national awards, including the Young Artist Prize of the Ministry of Culture. Her poetry collection “The Moon Is a Pill “ (2018; Parthian Books) was translated by Rimas Užgiris and published in English. Her poetry is translated in Polish, Latvian, Russian, French, German, Spanish, Georgian, Greek.

Dovilė Bagdonaitė (b. 1991) is an artist and poet. 2019 Laureate of the "Poetry Spring" evening of young poets. 2016 won the "First Book" competition organized by the Lithuanian Writers' Union Publishing House with the poetry collection "Blue Whale’s Heart".

British & Lithuanian poets collaborate : April Monday 9th 2018
at The Poetry Cafe
The Poetry Society

A packed house at The Poetry Society saw a special focus event of the European Poetry Festival, some of the finest literary poets from Lithuania, nation of focus at the London Bookfair 2018, and their British contemporaries presented brand new collaborations made for the night. Featured: Marius Burokas & George Szirtes / Aušra Kaziliūnaitė & SJ Fowler / Giedrė Kazlauskaite & John Clegg

The evening was opened with short solo readings by other visiting European poets including Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir (Iceland) Muanis Sinanovic (Slovenia), Martin Solotruk (Slovakia), Theodoros Chiotis (Greece) and the event also featured new collaborations by poets from the Poetry School programme - European Poetry Now  Sarah Dawson and Selina Rodrigues / Fiona Moore and Caroline Davies / Eleni Cay and Robert Peake /Elisa Day and Bob Bright

The 21st century Lithuanian poetry scene has been marked by an unusually prolific and original array of poets. Often lyrical and engaged in a new formalism, connecting to those who oversaw the transition to independence, the new Lithuanian poet is also idiosyncratic, witty, often linguistically. experimental, well travelled, technologically savvy. While spiritually connected to the revolutionary underground spirit of creativity that underpinned some of the greatest poetry Europe produced while Lithuania was under Soviet occupation, there is a marked move to a new kind of poetic voice, that speaks the same tone as the rest of its continent and is not necessarily framed by politics or history, but by vision, originality and humour. 

This is a Lithuanian Cultural Institute event, supported by The Poetry Society.

Photos of the event by Madeleine Rose Elliott.
Curated by SJ Fowler.