Then What

Gintaras Grajauskas is one of Lithuania's leading poets, and also a multi-talented playwright, essayist, novelist and editor. Born in 1966, he has lived and worked in Klaipeda since childhood. He graduated from the S. Simkus High School for music, and later from the Lithuanian National Conservatory's Klaipeda branch in the jazz department. From 1990-94 he worked in radio and television, and from 1994 was the editor of the Klaipeda literary journal Gintaros Lasai. He has been head of the literature department of the Klaipeda State Drama Theater since 2008. Grajauskas has published seven books of poetry, two essay collections, one novel and one collection of plays. His work has won numerous awards, including the Z. Gele Prize for best poetry debut (1994), and the Poetry Spring Mairionis prize for best poetry collection (2000). His poems have been translated into many languages, with collections published in Germany, Sweden, Italy, Iceland and Poland. A selection of his poems appeared in the bilingual anthology Six Lithuanian Poets (Arc Publications, 2008). The first English translation of his poetry, Then What, translated by Rimis Uzgiris, is published by Bloodaxe in 2018. Grajauskas is also a founding member of the blues-rock band Kontrabanda and the jazz-rock band Rockfeleriais for whom he is bassist and lead vocalist.

First English translation of one of Lithuania's leading poets. Paradoxical, absurd, witty and observant, his poetry reflects Lithuania's post-Soviet society.