A brief biography...
(For Lidija's full-length CV in English, click here and for Lithuanian, click here )
Dan Monceaux
© DANimations 2002
Lidija Šimkutė is a bilingual poet. Her multidimensional poetry evokes primordial imagery, emotional tension, spiritual longing, life’s fragility, mystery and particularly silence.
Lidija was born in a small village in Samogitia, Lithuania, 1942. Her parents fled from Soviet occupation during WWII so Lidija spent her early childhood in displaced persons camps in Germany and came to Australia in 1949.
Lidija Šimkutė was keen to maintain and extend her Lithuanian language so furthered her studies in language, literature, folklore and history by correspondence through The Lithuanian Language Institute in Chicago, United States (1973-78) and went to Vilnius University Lithuania (1977 and 1987).
Lidija
Šimkutė
has three books
published in Lithuanian and five
bilingual poetry books,
two of which are
translated into German and Polish,
and a broadsheet in
English (Click here).
There are also three bilingual
CDs:Tylos erdvės/Spaces
of Silence,
Vėjo žvilgesys/Wind Sheen,
Balti
šešėliai/White Shadows
with music inserts. (See attached CV)
Lidija Šimkutė writes in Lithuanian and English. There are Lithuanian publications in Kultūros Barai, Literatūra ir Menas, Metai, Nemunas, Šiaurės Atėnai and other literary journals. English publications in Meanjin, Southerly, Mattoid, Five Bells, Overland, Wet Ink and other journals in Australia, Lituanus in United States, Vilnius and Vilnius Review in Lithuania: The Shop in Ireland as well as other journals in Holland, Romania and United States.
Šimkutė’s poetry is included in various anthologies in English, Lithuanian and translations into other languages (see attached CV). Lidija has given interviews and bilingual readings on radio in Australia, Lithuania and elsewhere.
Šimkutė’s
poems have been translated into thirteen languages.
Lidija has
translated Australian poetry/prose (incl.
David Malouf’s
novel
An Imaginary of
Life); other works from English into Lithuanian, including poetry and
prose of Samuel
Beckett; J.M. Coetzee’s Nobel
speech:
He and His Man; Jelalludin Rumi’s poetry; a long
poem: Thunder Perfect Mind from
The Gnostic
texts,
and other works.
Lidija
has given poetry readings in various parts of the world, at a number of
local and International Poetry Festivals.
Poetry was
read at a Dance Instillation project
WWW for Weereewa
/
Lake George Festival, in
Australia,
and in Dreaming the
Deep
performed in
Europe,
2002.
Her poetry
Spaces of Silence was used for
a theatrical performance
directed by Gediminas Sederavičius
with author’s poetry reading, modern
dance, percussion
and shakuhachi - staged in Vilnius, Klaipėda and
Kaunas
in 2005.
Lidija Šimkutė’s
poem ”My Father”
was short
listed for
Poem of the
Millennium
at
Poetry Festival in Australia 2004
and
read on ABC TV
Arts program.
Lidija has received poetry grants from Australia Council, South Australia Dept. for the Arts and the Lithuanian Australian Foundation.
Šimkute's poetry publications:
...Bilingual:
- Tylos erdvės / Spaces of Silence, 1999 (Lithuania)
- Weiße Schatten / White Shadows, 2000 (Austria)
-
Iš toli ir arti / Z bliska i z daleka , 2003 (Poland)
- Vėjo žvilgesys / Wind Sheen, 2003 (Lithuania)
- Mintis ir uola / Thought and Rock, 2008 (Lithuania)
...in Lithuanian:
- Antrasis ilgesys (The Second Longing), 1978 (USA)
- Prisiminimų inkarai (Anchors of Memory), 1982 (USA)
- Vėjas ir šaknys (Wind and Roots), 1991 (Lithuania)
...in English:
- The Sun Paints a Sash, 2000 (USA)