From 21st until 24th February, Lithuania is holding the 19th Vilnius Book Fair during which Lithuanian translations of books by Nora Ikstena, Jānis Joņevs, Zane Zusta, Alvis Hermanis and Visvaldis Lācis will be launched and other events honoring Latvian authors and translators will take place.
“So far, we have been actively translating Lithuanian and Estonian works, with the process less often occuring the other way around. Therefore I am happy to see that more than a dozen books have successfully been published in the last few years in Lithuania, and several Latvian best sellers are to be launched specifically at the Vilnius Book Fair,” elaborates the “Latvian Literature” director Inga Bodnarjuka-Mrazauskas.
“It’s no joke. We might appear as an intriguing novelty to the outside world but our neighbours know us like the back of their hands, and will judge our honesty. You can’t fool Lithuanians,” says author Jānis Joņevs whose Lithuanian edition of “Jelgava 94” is the tenth foreign translation of his best selling book.
lLatvia’s participation in the fair will be celebrated with an opening discussion “The Lithuanian-Latvian Literature Dialogue” on 21th February, at 18:00 p.m., hosted by poet and translator Jānis Elsbergs and translator Indra Brūvere-Darulienė. On 22nd February, at 18:00 p.m., the translation of Jānis Joņevs’ “Jelgava 94” in Lithuanian will be launched; on 23rd February, at 13:00 p.m., different venues will be holding launching events for Nora Ikstena’s book “Soviet Milk”, and Zane Zusta’s “Uci Puci” in Lithuanian. On 23rd February, at 15:00 p.m., writer Nora Ikstena will be participating in a panel discussion “How we discover national writers?” alongside Lithuanian author Kristina Sabaliauskaitė and Estonian writer Rein Raud, who both represented the Baltic states in the London Book Fair 2018 as Authors of the Day. On 23rd February, at 12:00 p.m., publicist, historian and politician Visvaldis Lācis will be presenting the Lithuanian translation of his book “Latvian Legion in the Light of Truth”. On 23rd February, at 14:00 p.m., a discussion about theatre director Alvis Hermanis’ book “Diary” in Lithuanian will be held.
Vilnius Book Fair (Vilniaus knygų mugė) is the largest book fair in the Baltic states, annually attended by around 60,000 people in four days. This year, 54 authors from 21 countries are scheduled to participate in various events.
More about the fair: here
