Lithuania
Daina Opolskaitė
Daina Opolskaitė Kovalčikienė was born in 1979 in Vilkaviškis. She graduated from Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences (former Vilniaus pedagoginis universitetas), where she studied Lithuanian philology, and now works as a teacher at a high school in Vilkaviškis. In 2000 she won the Lithuanian Writers Union prize for the first book (Drožlės), in 2018 she won Antanas Vaičiulaitis and Jurgis Kunčinas literature awards for short stories. D. Opolskaitė is very prolific in youth literature written for teenagers as well (during 2015-2018 she wrote 3 novels). In 2016 writer was awarded by Children’s Literature Award. In 2017 her novel „Ir vienąkart, Riči“, became the book of the year. In Lithuanian press D. Opolskaitė published 30 short stories, reviews and essays.
DIENŲ PIRAMIDĖS (PYRAMIDS OF THE DAY)
Translation: Duško Krstevski
Opolskaitė’s short stories (a collection of thirteen in this book) usually start off with intimately observed close relations within a family: between spouses, between parents and children, between siblings; sometimes between close young friends or lovers.
Themes of betrayal and long-standing sense of guilt are explored by means of a sensitive and exquisite literary language. Out of an ordinary level the situation is usually shifted onto something extraordinary; unexpected new aspects of the relationships emerge, the reader is offered a view from a fresh perspective.
Within a net of entangled human relationships, we acquire an eye-opening unexpected dimension which also sheds new light on certain nuances of human predicament as such.
Recepient of European Union prize for literature for 2019.