Year

2015

XXVI Druskininkai Poetic Fall, echoes of 2015

Theme: Writers’ Block?

The 26th annual Druskininkai Poetic Fall (DPF) festival took place October 7-12, 2015, and more than 130 poets, literary critics, publishers from Lithuania and abroad, and festival organizers participated.

The Festival began with an evening of readings at the Mint Vinetu bookstore. Marius Burokas, one of the DPF Almanac’s editors and translator Rimas Užgiris, together with international guests Tom Healy (USA), Maarja Kangro (Estonia), Leonard Kress (USA), and Sayaka Osaki (Japan) read 285 their works.

The principal poets whose work was also included in the DPF Almanac were: Va- liantsina Aksak (Belarus; translated by Vytas Dekšnys); Miloš Ðurđevic (Croatia, translated by Laima Masytė); Gintaras Grajauskas (Lithuania; translated by Medeinė Tribinevičius); Tom Healy (United States; translated by Marius Burokas); Jurgita Jasponytė (Lithuania; translated by Rimas Užgiris); Maarja Kangro (Estonia; translated by Danutė Sirijos Giraitė); Elena Karnauskaitė (Lithuania; translated by Ada Valaitis); Leonard Kress (United States; translated by Sonata Paliulytė); Robert Meskhi (Georgia; translated by Vytautas Stankus); Sayaka Osaki (Japan; translated by Vytautas Dumčius); Donatas Petrošius (Lithuania; translated by Rimas Užgiris); Ahmed Shafie (Egypt; translated by Saudada Mockevičiūtė); Antanas Šimkus (Lithuania; translated by Ada Valaitis); Inese Zandere (Latvia; translated by Vladas Braziūnas).

In 2015-2017 the “Druskininkai Poetic Fall” festival is part of the international poetry platform VERSOPOLIS. The theme of this project is “Where poetry lives”. The goal is to promote young poets and provide an opportunity for them to read their work outside of their own countries. In 2015, the following five poets attended DPF as representatives of the project: Łukasz Jarosz (Poland; translated by Vytas Dekšnys); Ida Linde (Sweden; translated by Zita Mažeikaitė); Eva Luka (Slovakia; translated by Vytas Dekšnys); Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer (Belgium; translated by Aušra Gudavičiūtė); Eleanor Rees (Great Britain; translated by Dominykas Norkūnas). The work of each of these five poets was published in a separate trilingual (Lithuanian, English, and original language) publication.

The festival’s program was full of events: two readings by poets featured in the Almanac on Friday and Saturday, readings by festival participants, Lithuanian poets, and new poets in Druskininkai, and three readings in Vilnius – a presentation of the Almanac, closing ceremonies and a post- festival reading at a cafe in Užupis. On Friday, a conference on the festival’s theme “Writers’ Block” took place with discussions led by poets Kornelijus Platelis, Donatas Petrošius, Laima Kreivytė, psychologist Aistė Diržytė and international guests.

The festival’s traditionally alternative events also took place – the gallery Sofa hosted the opening of Gvidas Latakas’ exhibition of miniatures entitled “Riterio sapnas” [A knight’s dream], and Ričardas Šileika’s exhibition “Žymenys” [Signs], opened at Boulangerie cafe. The V. K. Jonynas gallery was the site of an exhibition of medals awarded to poets, organized by Petras Repšys. And a graphic arts and calligraphy workshop took place at the M. K. Čiurlionis Memorial Museum.

The poetry readings on Friday night were hosted by Uršulė Gedaitė and Ričardas Šileika, the young poets readings were hosted by Andrius Jakučiūnas and Neringa Butnoriūtė, and featured nine young poets.

On Saturday, poetry readings hosted by Dainius Gintalas took place at the M. K. Čiurlionis Memorial Museum. In the afternoon, the readings continued at the Bubilas hall, led by Saulius Vasiliauskas and Emilija Visockaitė. Bubilas Hall also hosted VERSOPOLIS project poetry readings, led by Rūta Elijošaitytė and Kotryna Pranckūnaitė.

Just as every year, the Druskininai Poetic Fall Almanac was presented together with a small book fair. On Saturday evening, poetry readings accompanied the closing ceremonies of the festival – this event was hosted by Nerijus Cibulskas and Violeta Bučiūtė.

During the closing ceremony of the festival, poet Rolandas Rastauskas was awarded the Yotvingian Prize for his poetry collection Vėliavos [Flags] published in 2014, and poet Mindaugas Nastaravičius was awarded the Young Yotvingian Prize for his 2014 MO. On Saturday, an award was presented to the best young poet, Dovydas Grajauskas, who was awarded the Antanas A. Jonynas Prize. Following the awards ceremony, the anonymous poem contest winners were announced. The contest followed three themes: one poem, “White Paper,” and a humorous poem on “The pleasures of laziness”.

On Sunday, the festival continued in Vilnius where all of the DPF guests and awardees participated in a reading at the Contemporary Art Center, hosted by Rimas Užgiris and Rūta Dubauskaitė. The Vytautas Labutis trio also performed: Vytautas Labutis – saxophone, Dmitrij Golovanov – piano, Arkady Gotesman – percussion. Monday evening, the traditional post-festival poetry reading took place, which featured the poets Dainius Gintalas, Mindaugas Nastaravičius, Donatas Petrošius and Gytis Norvilas.

Translated by Ada Valaitis

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