Birutė Jonuškaitė (Biruta Augustinienė) is a Lithuanian novelist, poet and journalist. She was born into a Lithuanian family in northeastern Poland. She later went on to study and graduate with a degree in journalism from Vilnius University. To date she has published five short story collections, seven novels, two books of essays, a book of poetry, and one novella for children. She has also translated a number of Polish authors such as Czesław Miłosz, Wisława Szymborska, Jacek Dehnel, Bohdan Sławiński, Magdalena Tulli into Lithuanian. Since 2003 she has held the post of vice-president of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union.

In addition to numerous literary awards (1989, 1996 , 2002 , 2006, 2007, 2009, 2016), including the Žemaitės Award for the best prose work of the year, and the Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės Award for best short story collection, she has received recognition for her journalism work on culture from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture, as well as the Witold Hulewicz Prize for her work in bringing Polish and Lithuanian literature closer together.

Her work has been translated into several languages, including German, English, Polisch, French, Slovenisch, Ukrainian, Spainich, Russian, Georgian, Belarusian and Croatian. Translations of her work include the short story cycle Jahreszeiten (Seasons, 1998) into German, her book for young adults entitled The Curious Story of Levukas translated into Belarusian (2007), and a collection of her short stories entitled Tylus žydėjimas (Silent Blossoming, 2013) translated into Georgian. Short story The Witch and the... has been translated by Jayde Will and has been published in the book called No Men, No cry (2011). Short story Spalva ir forma ( Colour and form) has been translated by Jayde Will and has been published in the book called The Dedalus Book of Lithuanian Literature (2014). Short story Gaisras (Fire) has also been translated by Jayde Will and can be found in the book called Best European Fiction 2015. Short story Saldūs įplyšimai (Sweet Tears)  has also been translated by Jayde Will and has been published in the book called Lituanus (Volume 61:4, 2015 m.).

In 2015 her novel Maranta has been nominated as one of the five best novels published in Lithuania that year. In 2016 she has been given an award for Culture and Art from the Lithuanian Government and the Liudas Dovydėnas Award for the best novel Maranta.

Birutė Jonuškaitė has published the following books:

1. “Justifying Myself” (“Pateisinti save”) (short stories), Vaga, Vilnius, 1989
2. “Ieva Wasn’t Driven Out of Heaven” (“Ievos neišvarė iš rojaus”) (novel), Periodika, Vilnius, 1991
3. “Rye Field” (“Rugių Laukas”) (short stories), Aušra, Punsk, 1996
4. “Big Island” (“Didžioji sala”) (novel, volume I), Vaga, Vilnius, 1997
5. “Big Island” (“Didžioji sala”) (novel, volume II), Vaga, Vilnius 1999
6. “Adder Bridge” (“Žalčių Tiltas”) (short stories), Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishers, Vilnius, 2002
7. “A Child with Gray Eyes” (Vaikas pražilusiom akim”) (poems), Aušra Publishers, Punsk, 2004
8. “Experiment” (“Eksperimentas”) (essays and interviews), Gimtasis žodis Publishers, Vilnius 2005
9. “A Letter from a Swallow”, (“Kregždėlaiškis”), (short stories), Versus aureus Publishers, 2006
10. “The Story of Curious Levukas“  "(literature for young adults), Homo liber Publishers, 2007
11. “Merchant of dreams of love” (novel), Gimtasis žodis Publishers, Vilnius 2007
12.  “The tango of white zips” (novel), Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishers, Vilnius, 2009
13. “Button my” (short stories), Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishers, Vilnius, 2011
14. “Auer poet” (essays by Cz. Milosz), Naujoji Romuva Publishers, 2012
15. „Maranta“ ( novel) Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishers, Vilnius, 2016

She has also translated the following books from Polish:

1. Stanislaw Kowalewski, „Nie ma ceny na miód akacjowy“, czasopismo „Aitvaras“,1994 r.
2. Aleksandr Fiut’s conversations with Czesław Miłosz in “Autoportret przekorny Czesława Miłosza”, Alma littera, Vilnius, 1997,
3. Rev. Tadeusz Dajczer, “Gdy się modlisz”, Katalikų pasaulis, Vilnius, 2001
4. Barbara Gruszka-Zych, “Śpię z tobą pod skórą” (selected poetry), Nemunas Publishers, Vilnius, 2006
5. Wielka Księga Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego,  Pogranicze , 2009,
6. Jacek Dehnel, „Lala“ (novel), Kronta Publishers, Vilnius 2010,
7. Michał Rusinek, „Mały Szopen”, Vilnius, Homo liber Publishers, 2010,
8. Jerzy Illg, „Piękne czasy. Czesław Miłosz i Wisława Szymborska”, Vilnius, Homo liber Publishers, 2011,
9. „Czeladnik czasu”, essays  by Cz. Miłosz, Vilnius, Homo  liber Publishers, 2010,
10. Bohdan Sławiński, „Królowa tiramisu“, (novel), Vilnius, Baltos lankos, 2011,
11. Barbara Gruszka-Zych, „Mój poeta”, essays  by Czesław Miłosz Naujoji Romuva Publishers, Vilnius, 2012
12. Magadalena Tulli, „Włoskie szpilki”, (novel), Vilnius, Lithuanian Writers’ Union Publishers, 2014
13. Janusz Rudnicki. „Śmierć czeskiego psa” (short story). – Czasopismo „Metai“ Nr. 5-6, 2015
14. Feliks Bernatowicz, „Pojata, córka Lezdejki, albo Litwini w XIV wieku“ (Lietuvių literatūros antologija, I tomas). –  (Wyd. Lietuvos literatūros ir tautosakos institutas, Vilnius, 2016 r.)
15. „Dialog kultur pamięci w regionie ULB” pod redakcją Alvydasa Nikžentaitisa i MichałaKopczyńskiego. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla, 2015. – 348 s.
16. Radziwiłłowie: żywa historia WKL . Rozmowa Alfredasa Bumblauskasa z Maciejem  i  Mikołajem Radziwiłłami, 2015 r.
17. Ks. Mariusz Marszałek. „Ksiądz według serca mego” (o ks. M. Sopoćko). –  Vilnius, 2016 r.
18.  Anna Skowrońska. „Alfabet Polski“,  – Warszawa: Muchomor sp z o.o., 2016 r.
19. „Pod-Grzybek“, sztuka, napisana przes  Martę Guśniowską, 2016 r.
20. „Ony“, sztuka, napisana przez Martę Guśniowską, 2016.
21. Janusz Korczak. „Prawo dziecka do szacunku.“ – Vilnius: Vaiko teisių apaugos kontrolieriaus įstaiga, 2016.
22. Maria Duszka. „Wolność chmór”, (selected poetry). – Vilnius: Homo liber, 2016
23. Anna Krepsztul. „Życie i twórczość”. – Vilnius, 2016.
24. Grzegorz Kasdepke . „A ja nie chcę być księżniczką”. – Vilnius:700 eilučių, 2017
25. Hanna Krall. „Król kier znów na wylocie”, (novel) – Vilnius: Homo liber, 2017

Birutė Jonuškaitė gave her interview to ePublisher project team: watch the interview on the project website and Youtube channel.