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The 32nd Druskininkai Poetic Autumn is an international literary festival that takes place every year, even during a pandemic, on the first weekend of October in Druskininkai and Vilnius. According to the organizers, it is a festival-laboratory for poets, critics, literary researchers and the public, although this public meets less every year and the poets usually read their works among themselves. And this year, strangers’ access to the poetry space was further limited by the requirement that all festival guests have Passports of Opportunity.
The theme for this year’s Poetic Autumn at Druskininkai is “Poetry in Prison”. In a discussion moderated by the philosopher Dalius Jonkus, that prison became a lattice of poetic language, the captivity of a person imprisoned in the body, and even the restrictions of quarantine. The poet Cornelius Platelis recalled that during the Soviet era we were all imprisoned by a repressive regime, but the poets in that prison had a privileged position, it was like a higher caste of prisoners who could speak of freedom in the language of Aesop. If Lithuanian poets could only see imprisoned people reading their verses to convicts, then Belarusian Sabina Brilo and Ukrainian Olena Hersymiuk spoke about the still fresh experience when creators became participants in political protests, experienced violence, repression, tried and jailed.
The young poets’ readings, directed by Laura Kromalcaitė and Simonas Bernotas, are organized in the evening in the Sala Bubilo of Café Širdelė. A decade later, they can be mentioned among the nominees for the Jotvingiai Prize.
At the moment, the young people are satisfied with the Young Jotvingian Award. In Druskininkai’s 32nd Poetic Autumn, she was introduced to Nojus Saulyčius for her outspoken, bold and risky poetry in her first book of poems “SMS Flower”, in 2020. published by the publisher Other Books.
The intrigue of who will win the Jotvingiai and Young Jotvingis awards did not stop a week ago, although a good decade ago the festival organizers tried not to reveal the secret until the solemn night of its presentation, and the participants pretended not to know.
Jotvingiai Prize 1985 founded by Sigitas Geda. That year she was received by the poet Kornelijus Platelis for the poem “The prayer of Jotvingiai leaping on the enemy”. When the “poetic autumns of Druskininkai” began in 1990, S. Geda agreed to associate the award with the festival. Nominations for the awards are currently considered by the awards committee and appointed by the Minister of Culture on the basis of their proposals. This year’s members of the Jotvingiai and Young Jotvingis Prize Committee are Eugenijus Ališanka, Daiva Čepauskaitė, Gytis Norvilas, Rūta Lazauskaitė, Ieva Toleikytė, Alvydas Šlepikas, Agnė Žagrakalytė.
This time everyone knew that the poet Dainiai Gintalas would have to be rewarded, greeted and photographed. In the report of the Ministry of Culture, the reasons for the award are formulated as follows: “For the advancement of the fascinating imagination and memory in the poetry book“ Song of a summer ”. The winner himself, while receiving the award at Druskininkai, spoke after writing the award-winning book in a couple of months.
“I let the language flow freely. I am grateful to my loving wife who said: let’s blog, I am alone and you are alone. As I wrote for a week or two, I began to feel that a book was being born for me. I am very grateful with Gytis Norvilas, who edited this book, I cut it a bit. It seems to me that this book is a wonder of the world, a book of love for life, which I enjoy, “said D. Gintalas.
The Antanas A. Jonynas Prize was presented to the young poet Ingrida Viluckyte without the participation of its founder in the festival. Laima Kreivytė presented the feminist prize “Žemaitės tašė” to Aušra Kaziliūnaitė. The poet, translator and essayist Eugenijus Ališanka won the prize “Poetry unites us and unites us” from the magazine “Nemunas”.
The festival organizers publish the Druskininkai Autumn Poetic Almanac every year, which, according to Alvydas Šlepikas, everyone “buys, but immediately puts it on the shelf and never reads.” The 2021 almanac was composed by the poets, the translators Vytas Dekšnys and Dominykas Norkūnas, which included the works of up to 8 Lithuanian poets and the American poet Kerry Shawn Keys, who has lived in our country for a long time. Poetry by Dainius Gintalas, Liudvikas Jakimavičius, Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, Giedrė Kazlauskaitė, Laima Kreivytė, Tomas Petrulis, Alvydas Šlepikas and Violeta Šoblinskaitė, as well as classics of world poetry by Brégeras de Haraitė.
K. Platelis, one of the creators of the Druskininkai Poetic Autumn, was pleased that even in the difficult conditions of a pandemic, the festival tradition was not broken and it was possible to organize it.
“I would like to thank everyone who organized the events, appreciated the work of others, everyone who participated in this festival. But the most important thing was Rūta Elijošaitytė-Kaikarė, who put everyone in their place. The quality of poetic texts is improving, the level is growing, poetry is becoming more diverse ”, summarized K. Platelis.
Late on Saturday night, while most of the festival guests were having fun at the disco “Echoes of the Decades 7-9” organized by Domantas Razauskas, a group of poets lowered the festival flag and raised it again along with a pink bra, protesting against men. dominance in the Jotvingian Prize Committee and among them.
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