The ePublisher team works to raise poetry to a more visible and influential position in the European culture. Guided by this aim, every month, we select one poet from each partner country to feature as our Poet of the Month. In this section we try to get behind the scenes of the poetry to introduce our international audience to the well known poets from Lithuania, Poland, Portugal and Finland, and to discuss inspirations and influences with the authors.
Marek Porąbka, our Poet of the Month from Poland, talks to us about himself …
Born and lives in Krakow.
He is still professionally involved in the design, measurements and automation in metallurgy.
His adventure with poetry began in 1998 in Croatia.
Mindaugas Valiukas (b. 1976) is a poet, prose writer, musician and dramatist.
Vytautas Stankus (b. 8 of November, 1984), poet and translator, lives in Vilnius. Vytautas has studied English Philology at the Lithuanian Pedagogical University. He began publishing poems in the literary press in 2007. His first poetry collection, "Walking on the Other Side of Ice" ("Vaikščiojimas kita ledo puse"), 2009 won the Zigmas Gaidamavičius-Gėlė Prize for the best poetry debut. Literature critics suggest Vytautas as one of the most emergent Lithuanian poets. His second poetry book "Iš veidrodžio, už" (From the Mirror, Behind) was published in 2014. The book is chosen by competent Commission to Five best poetry books of 2014 in Book of the Year Campaign. In February 2015 Vytautas' book "From the Mirror, Behind" became a poetry book of the year 2014 in Lithuania. His new book of poetry „Skruzdžių skandinimas“ (The Drowning of the Ants) came out in December, 2016.
Motto: I think poetry is a verbal form of Silence ("Manau, jog poezija yra verbalinė tylėjimo forma")
Birutė Jonuškaitė (Biruta Augustinienė) is a Lithuanian novelist, poet and journalist. She was born into a Lithuanian family in northeastern Poland.
I am a poet, scriptwriter, director, translator. I was born as a farmer’s son in Ähtäri, central part of Finland.
Poet, singer, composer, performer of improvised modern music, visual artist, art conservator, designer. One of the most original contemporary Polish artists. A polysensory artist combining visual arts, music, literature and theatre.
Laima Kreivytė - a well know Lithuanian poet and art critic. She studied at Vilnius Academy of Arts and at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest.
Fernando Miguel Alves Mendes was born in August 1979, he is currently a professional library technician.
Juha Kulmala (b.1962) is a Finnish poet living in Turku, with four collections published so far, the fifth coming out soon.
She is a Polish poet, essayist and translator (among others, of Alice Munro’s The View from Castle Rock, Thomas Merton’s Raids on the Unspeakable, and Ewa Lipska’s selection of poetry The New Century), author of seven poetry volumes and a book of short stories, a recipient of prestigious literary awards in Poland (including Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński Literary Prize and Krakow’s Book of the Month Prize for her collection of poems Trzy ołówki). In 2004 she was granted the second prize in the literary contest judged by Wisława Szymborska. Together with Robin Davidson she translated a selection of Ewa Lipska’s poetry entitled The New Century, published in the USA in 2009.
Was born in exile in Barnaul (Russia) in 1960. Since 1962 lives in Vilnius. He graduated from Vilnius University, Faculty of Mathematics in 1983. In 1990-2000 he worked as a research fellow at the Institute of Culture and Art; in 1994-2002 was a director of international programs at The Lithuanian Writers Union (LWU) as well as a director of international poetry festival “Spring of Poetry”. From 1994 till 2008 he was a board member at LWU, since 1999 a member of Lithuanian PEN Club and from 1998 till 2002 – a board member at Baltic Writers‘ Council. From 2003 till 2015 – a chief editor of “Vilnius” magazine, which is also published in English (“Vilnius Review”) and Russian.
João Pedro Mésseder was born in OPorto in 1957. Signing with his first name (José António Gomes) he is a professor of higher education, researcher and critic with several studies published on contemporary Portuguese literature and writing for childhood and youth.
Tommi Parkko (born 8 October 1969 Hamina) is a Finnish poet, journalist, writer and educator.
Katarzyna Grzesiak is a poet and translator from Poland.
She was born on December 6th, 1970 in Krakow. She graduated from the Czech Studies at the Jagiellonian University.
She made her debut in 1993 in "Literary Decade," published in the journals "cross-section", "Party", "Study" (translations - poetry and prose), "Krakow". A scholar of the City of Kra-tional in 1998. Her lyrics are sung at the cabaret "Piwnica".
Violeta Palčinskaitė is a famous Lithuanian poetess, playwright, screenwriter, translator and children's literature classic. More than a single generation grew up reading her poetry and were deeply affected by her plays. Even those who are not interested in poetry, know her verses because they heard them as songs and quatrains which have become nearly folklore.
António Mota was born in Vilarelho, Ovil, municipality of Baião (PT), on July 16, 1957. He was a teacher of Basic Education.
Armas Hiiri is a poet, translator and philologist. He was born on 15 February 1935 in a village district of the Leningrad area, in so-called Ingermanland. By nationality he is ingermanland Finn. He currently lives in Finland in Turku.
A poetess from Poland. Author of the following collections of poems: Szukam cienia (I Search for the Shadow) 1996, Zanim (Before) 2007, Strona obecności (The Presence Site) 2010, Od rozbłysku (From the Flash-out) 2013, Tu (Here) 2015.
Poet, artist, performer. Copywriter and publicist. Artist of avant-garde rap and the voice of electronic music.
Interested in interactive poetry, literary remixes and artificial languages.
Few years in a row represented Lithuania in European slam poetry championships. Has one the first place in European poetry slam championship 2014 in Malmo, Sweden.
José Fanha was born in Lisbon and graduated in architecture. Poet and reciter, participated in thousands of cultural animation sessions...
Born in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia, lives in the city of Turku. Journalist, poet, teacher. Fisherman. All pursuits and professions find a place on both sides of the border.
Born in 1967 in Koper (Slovenia). Poet, translator, geophysical engineer. Graduated from University of Mining and Metallurgy in Krakow (Poland).
Poetry - it's stealing from the beyond
I was born in the youngest (only thirteen years my senior) Lithuanian town - Elektrėnai on 7 January 1973 in the evening, when the sky was pouring with rain and cracking with lightning.
