Judita Vaičiūnaitė

Judita Vaičiūnaitė was born in 1937 in Kaunas, Lithuania.{{Cite web|last=Bernotienė|first=Gintarė|title=Vaičiūnaitė|url=http://www.xn--altiniai-4wb.info/index/details/1422|access-date=2021-03-15|website=Šaltiniai|language=lt}}{{Cite book|last=North|first=Michael|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1124433712|title=The Baltic : a history|date=2016|others=Kenneth Kronenberg|isbn=978-0-674-42604-7|location=Cambridge|oclc=1124433712}} Her father was a professor of psychiatry, and her mother was a nurse. She was particularly close with her sister Dalia.

After World War II, she moved to Vilnius with her family. There, she studied at Vilnius University, graduating in 1959.{{Cite web|title=from Crystal by Judita Vaičiūnaitė|url=https://www.asymptotejournal.com/poetry/judita-vaiciunaite-crystal/|access-date=2021-03-15|website=Asymptote|language=en}} Vaičiūnaitė would live in Vilnius for the rest of her life, making the city a central subject of her work.

She was married to the famous Latvian poet and translator {{Interlanguage link|Hermanis Margeris Majevskis|lt}}.{{Cite web |title=Bilingvālā izdevumā izdota Hermaņa Marģera Majevska dzejas izlase "Pretstraumes čuksti" |url=https://lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/augstak-par-zemi/bilingvala-izdevuma-izdota-hermana-margera-majevska-dzejas-izlas.a169898/ |access-date=2024-04-08 |website=Latvijas Sabiedriskie Mediji |language=Latvian}}

Vaičiūnaitė's first poetry collection, Pavasario akvarelės ("Spring Watercolors"), was published in 1960. She went on to publish new collections frequently, producing more than 20 books of poetry. She also wrote fairy tales and poems for children.

Vaičiūnaitė worked as an editor for several literary journals in Lithuania. She also completed translations of other poets into Lithuanian, notably the work of Anna Akhmatova.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/951558037|title=Urban semiotics : the city as a cultural-historical phenomenon|date=2015|others=I. A. Pilʹshchikov|isbn=978-9985-58-807-9|location=Tallinn|oclc=951558037}}{{Cite journal|last1=Venclova|first1=Tomas|last2=Hinsey|first2=Ellen|date=2014|title=Meetings with Anna Akhmatova|journal=New England Review|volume=34|issue=3/4|pages=170–182, 383, 390|doi=10.1353/ner.2014.0039|s2cid=176956687}} In 1978, she was named the laureate of the Lithuanian {{Interlanguage link|Poetry Spring|lt|Poezijos pavasaris}} festival.

In 1996, she was awarded the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science for her collection Žemynos vainikai ("Wreaths of Zemyna"). That year, she published the memoir Vaikystės veidrody, a series of essays about her own life.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/785782275|title=Transitions of Lithuanian postmodernism : Lithuanian literature in the post-Soviet period|date=2011|publisher=Rodopi|others=Mindaugas Kvietkauskas|isbn=978-94-012-0728-7|location=New York|oclc=785782275}} She was issued the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas in 1997, and the Lithuanian Writers' Union Prize in 2000.

Vaičiūnaitė's poetry dealt with a wide range of subjects and themes, including Lithuanian and Greek mythology, modern jazz, history, and contemporary city life.{{Cite book|last=Silbajoris|first=Rimvydas|title=The Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=1980|edition=2nd|location=New York|chapter=Lithuanian literature}} Her urban-centered poetry, frequently set in Vilnius' Old Town, is perhaps her best known. It came at a time when most other Lithuanian poets were from the countryside and focused on the natural world in their work.{{Cite web|last=Uzgiris|first=Rimas|date=2016-04-18|title="Unexpected Vistas": Rimas Uzgiris Translates Judita Vaičiūnaitė|url=https://agnionline.bu.edu/blog/unexpected-vistas-rimas-uzgiris-translates-judita-vaiciunaite|access-date=2021-03-15|website=AGNI Magazine}}{{Cite journal|last=Silbajoris|first=Rimvydas|date=Winter 2002|title=Debesu arka|journal=World Literature Today|volume=76|issue=1|pages=170|doi=10.2307/40157122|jstor=40157122}} She also incorporated the city's multicultural history into her poems.{{Cite web|last=Uzgiris|first=Rimas|date=2017-06-19|title=To Gaze Through Clouds of Dust|url=http://vilniusreview.com/reviews-2/223-to-gaze-through-clouds-of-dust|access-date=2021-03-15|website=Vilnius Review|language=en-gb}}

She frequently employed dramatic monologue in her work, often from the point of view of female historical and mythological figures. Her poetry was influenced by the neo-romantic work of Salomėja Nėris, the first prominent Lithuanian woman poet.{{Cite web|last=Uzgiris|first=Rimas|date=2016-03-15|title=Translating Two Neo-Romantic Poems by Judita Vaičiūnaitė|url=https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/translation-tuesday/translating-two-neo-romantic-poems-judita-vaiciunaite|access-date=2021-03-15|website=World Literature Today|language=en|archive-date=2022-05-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220528111130/https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/blog/translation-tuesday/translating-two-neo-romantic-poems-judita-vaiciunaite|url-status=dead}} Alongside Marcelijus Martinaitis, Sigitas Geda, and others, she was part of a generation that quietly revolutionized Lithuanian poetry as dissatisfaction grew with Soviet rule, but the neo-romantic strains persisted.

Vaičiūnaitė was a highly independent single mother, but she was also convinced of the importance of romantic love. She wrote with a feminist realism, narrating the lives of single women in the city.

Judita Vaičiūnaitė died in Vilnius in 2001.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/40545537|title=Lithuania : in her own words : an anthology of contemporary Lithuanian writing|date=1997|publisher=Tyto alba|others=Laima Sruoginis|isbn=9986-16-054-5|location=Vilnius|oclc=40545537}} A 2010 posthumous collection of selections from her work, Kristalas: Poezijos Rinktinė, was published by the Lithuanian Writers' Union. In 2018, a collection of her work in English translation was published as Vagabond Sun: Selected Poems.

A monument to her stands near the Church of St. Catherine in Vilnius.

• Pavasario akvarelės (1960)
• Kaip žalias vynas (1962)
• Per saulėtą gaublį (1964)
• Vėtrungės (1966)
• Po šiaurės herbais (1968)
• Žiemos lietus (1987)
• Žemynos vainikai (1995)
• Seno paveikslo šviesa (1998)
• Debesų arka (2000)
• Kristalas: Poezijos Rinktinė (posthumous, 2010)

• Pavasario fleita (collection, 1980)

• Vaikystės veidrody (1996)

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Category:1937 births

Category:2001 deaths

Category:People from Kaunas

Category:20th-century Lithuanian women writers

Category:Lithuanian women poets

Category:Vilnius University alumni

Category:Lithuanian translators