Latvian and Lithuanian Literature in Germany
Baltic culture for a German audience
March 19th, 2015
At the close of the International Book Fair in Leipzig, German fans of the Baltic literature had the chance to listen to public readings by two Baltic authors. Lithuanian cultural attaché in Germany, Gabriele Žaidytė (Latvian Literature Centre and Lithuanian Cultural Institute) organized a Literary Salon at the Lithuanian Embassy in Berlin on the evening of March 17th. Writers Dalia Staponkutė from Lithuania and Alise Tīfentāle from Latvia were invited to read excerpts of their books at the event. The evening was hosted by Swedish-born writer Ulf Peter Hallberg, who lives in Berlin. Translator Markus Rodūnios and publisher Gino Leineweberis also attended the salon.
Alise Tīfentāle (born 1977) is a Latvian writer, editor, art historian and curator. Currently she lives and works in New York. She grew up in a family of artists in Riga. Her father was a painter and her mother was a photographer. Even as a 15-year-old she began to write as a rock music journalist in a teen magazine. Since 2001, she has written numerous press releases and book reviews on a broad range of topics - from photography to Soviet and post-Soviet era contemporary art. Thus far, she has published three books - the collection of short stories "Hotel Riga" (1999), and the novels "The Main Prize – A Trip for Two" (2001) and "In the wake of Riga" (2003). Her writing, which combines autobiography and fiction, has been translated into Finnish, Lithuanian and Estonian.
Dalia Staponkutė (born 1964) is a Lithuanian writer, philosopher and translator. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Cyprus. She taught at universities in Lithuania, and afterwards she moved to Cyprus she worked mainly as a translator and a writer. Staponkutė has written essays on translation theory, emigration and bilingualism and she has participated in many international conferences, for example in Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt. As a consequence of her international activities, she is was invited to be a member of the Hamburg Writers' Association. This year her book, "Out of the two I prefer the third: My Little Odyssey", won the prize for the most creative book of the year in Lithuania. It has been translated into German by M. Rodūnios. The book was unveiled to a German audience for the first time at the International Book Fair in Leipzig on March 14th. Furthermore, she translates books by Nikos Kazantzakis from Greek into Lithuanian.
References and Links
- See more at: http://de.mfa.lt/index.php?3975565048
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