Year

2012

The 23rd annual festival "Druskininkai Poetic Fall" took place October 2-8, 2012. More than 120 poets, literary critics, and publishers from Lithuania and abroad participated in the festival.

Druskininkai Poetic Fall opened with the presentation of the anthology at the Mint Vinetu bookstore, hosted by Dainius Gintalas. The following international guests read their work: Rimas Užgiris, Narlan Matos Teixeira, Rikardo Arregi, and Waqas Khwaja.

The principal poetry reading participants were: Sonata Paliulytė (Lithuania; translated by Kerry Shawn Keys); Jãnis Elsbergs (Latvia; translated by Erika Drungytė); Uladzimier Arlou (Belarus; translated by Vytautas Dekšnys); Rikardo Arregi (Spain/Basque Region; translated by Marius Burokas); Justyna Bargielska (Poland; translated by Vytautas Dekšnys); Sergey Gandlevsky (Russia; translated by Antanas A. Jonynas); Stanka Hrastelj (Slovenia; translated by Laima Masytė); Simone Inguanez (Malta; translated by Julius Keleras); Anton Helgi Jónsson (Iceland; translated by Jurgita Marija Abraitytė); Waqas Khwaja (Pakistan; translated by Vytautas Stankus); Arūnas Spraunius (Lithuania; translated by Joseph Grikis and Daiva Litvinskaitė); Juan Carlos Mestre (Spain; translated by Jurga Katkuvienė and Laurynas Katkus); Nina Murray (United States of America; translated by Edgaras Platelis); Sara Poisson (Lithuania; translated by Ada Valaitis); Gabriel Rosenstock (Ireland; translated by Sonata Paliulytė); Fiona Sampson (United Kingdom; translated by Marius Burokas); Karl Martin Sinijärv (Estonia; translated by Danutė Sirijos Giraitė); Arnold Spescha (Switzerland; translated by Markus Roduner and Vladas Braziūnas); Vytautas Stankus (Lithuania; translated by Rimas Užgiris); Maki Starfield (Japan; translated Vytautas Dumčius); Narlan Matos Teixeira (Brazil; translated by Arvydas Makštutis); Rimas Užgiris (United States of America; translated by Edgaras Platelis).

The festival's program was full of events: 5 readings in Druskininkai and 3 in Vilnius, a conference, alternative events, and an auction. The opening of the festival was signalled by the playing of the Druskininkai Poetic Fall hymn at the city's central fountain. The theme of the 2012 festival was – The Social Contexts of Creative Works: Poetry and Politics? The conference theme discussion was led by Rimantas Kmita, with talks given by Marijus Šidlauskas, Laima Kreivytė, and Kornelijus Platelis. There was also an exhibition of photos by Benediktas Januševičius that featured moments captured from previous festivals.

The evening readings were led by Vytautas Stankus and Daiva Čepauskaitė. Friday closed with the traditional young poets' readings, during which 10 young poets read their work. This event was hosted by Ilzė Butkutė, and the work of these young poets was then discussed on Saturday.

On Saturday morning, the photo exhibition of Gerardas Šatūnas entitled "Signs of the Times – 2" opened the Boulangerie café. Later, the SOFA gallery hosted Julius Keleras's "Texts of Photography" and Valdas Gilius's installation "About Art." A group poetry writing exercise and alternative poetry readings took place in the courtyard at Dainava and were hosted by Vytautas Dekšnys.
Just as every year, the presentation of the Druskinikai Poetic Fall almanac and books released in the previous year occurred, together with a small book fair. The books were presented by Valentinas Sventickas.

Poetry readings and the Festival's closing ceremony took place Saturday evening, hosted by poet Mindaugas Nastaravičius and writer Jurga Tumasonytė. During the ceremony, poet Rimvydas Stankevičius was awarded the Jotvingis prize and poet Indrė Valantinaitė was awarded the Young Jotvingis prize. After the awards ceremony winners of the traditional anonymous poetry contests were anounced. You can find their works in the DPF Anthology 2013. The auction of warious things took place after led by Aušra Kaziliūnaitė.

On Sunday, the Festival moved to Vilnius where all of the winners and guests participated in poetry readings at the Piano.lt hall. The readings were led by Indrė Valantinaitė and Laurynas Katkus, and the Vytis Nivinskas jazz trio played.

On Monday, poets met with students at Vilnius University, and in the evening there were post-Festival readings at the Užupis café.

Rūta Elijošaitytė

More in this category: « 2000 2017 »

OUR PARTNERS

 

Lietuvos kultūros taryba
Lietuvos Respublikos kutūros ministerija
EU: Creative Europe
Versopolis
Dainava