The Presentation of the Book on Lithuanian Culture in Diaspora

May 10, 2022

On May 5, the presentation of the book “Laiko jungtys” [Links of Time] (Vilnius, 2021) by Dalia Kuizinienė took place at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania.

The latest book by Prof. Kuizinienė, which consists of two parts, contains interviews and articles spanning a period of more than thirty years. The first part includes interviews with diaspora writers, publishers and journalists from 1992 to 2005 when they first arrived in Lithuania after the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. These are interviews with the figures of the older generation of Lithuanian diaspora, writers Jurgis Jankus, Kazimieras Barėnas, Birutė Pūkelevičiūtė and Vytautas Volertas, literary critics Birutė Ciplijauskaitė, Rimvydas Šilbajoris and Bronius Vaškelis, and the publisher Gintautas Vėžys. The second part of the book consists of interviews with Lithuanian writers, academics and artists currently living and working outside Lithuania: Birutė Putrius, prof. Violeta Kelertienė, prof. Algirdas Avižienis, Lina Ever, Jolita Herlyn and Almyra Weigel.

The author of the book says that she tried to connect the past and the present, highlighting parallels and differences and that the conversations presented in the book are a kind of sign of a bygone time that “spotlights not only the Lithuanian diaspora but also our post-Soviet life.”