The winner of the 2024 First Book competition is announced

It has already become a tradition that on the seventh of May – the day of the recovery of the press, speech and the book – the publishing house of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union announces the winners of the First Book competition in the categories of poetry and prose, which has been running for ten years. Rūta Vyžintaitė-Lajienė, who sent the poetry manuscript “Luxemburgo jūra”, and Greta Gudelytė, the author of the short story collection “Ziemojimas su mirusaiim”, are announced as the winners of the 2024 First Book competition.

The author of “Wintering with the Dead” is Greta Gudelytė.

The competition is open to beginning writers who have not yet published their original books in any format.

in 2024 40 poetry and 23 prose manuscripts were submitted to the competition, which was invited by the publishing house of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union at the beginning of the year. As usual, they are evaluated anonymously by poetry and prose commissions approved by the board of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. Poetry manuscripts were evaluated this year by poets Ieva Toleikytė (commission chairperson), Jurgita Jasponytė and Dainius Gintalas, prose writers by Danutė Kalinauskaitė (commission chairperson), Alvydas Šlepikas and Renata Šerelytė.

“I am a journalist, screenwriter from Kaunas,” Rūta Vyžintaitė-Lajienė said while presenting her upcoming book. “Perhaps that’s why I find poetry by learning this and that: I am moved by facts, words, numbers, maps and the stories and situations they create. As a child of the 90s, I inherited most of such “knowledge” from the experiences of Lithuania and Eastern Europe in the 20th century, which is why I named the book “Luxembourg Sea” – this is a hint to the “Luxembourg Radio” which became a symbol of longing for the period, to the dream of the sometimes impossible, to small the great seas of things,” she said.

According to Greta Gudelytė, her collection of short stories can also be treated as fairy tales for adults: “I would classify my work in the genre of strange literature. Personally, this book reminds me of a witchcraft joke, full of mythological traces, archaic symbolism, shamanic recipes and dream logic.”

When announcing the winners, both competition commissions also singled out other works that won their favor. In the poetry category, there are manuscripts by Lilija Rakova, Eglė Elena Murauskaitė and Orest Razum, and prose by Monika Kavaliauskaitė and Marius Lukošiaus.

The first books of the laureates will be published by the publishing house of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union in the fall.

This spring marks the 30th anniversary of the publishing house of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union organizing the First Book competition. This year, the First Book competition, which commemorates its first anniversary, has been marked in the Book Awards for the Cultivation of Talents organized by the Association of Lithuanian Publishers.