Thomas Venclova, a Lithuanian Poet in the Heart of Europe

Tomas Venclova was born in Klaipeda in 1937. After engaging in dissident activities, he left the Lithuanian Soviet Republic in 1977 for the USA, where he long taught literature at Yale University. He now lives in New Haven (CT) and in Vilnius.  He is the author of numerous essays, a translator of poetry, a defender of human rights, but first of all, an important poet of our time. One of the concerns of his poems are the victims of violence in history. Other characteristics of his poetry are the presence of classical myths and a genuine combination of formal rigour and generosity.

We are happy to offer you the opportunity to meet with Tomas Venclova during his stay in Switzerland. He will read some of his poems in a bilingual version – Lithuanian and French – and take part in a discussion led by Ghislaine Dunant and Marion Graf, two of the editors of La Revue de Belles-Lettres. Some recent poems and excerpts of his correspondence with Czeslaw Milosz have been published in translation in the latest issue of this Swiss poetry journal.

Conversation in English, translated into French
Moderation: Ghislaine Dunant and Marion Graf
Entrance: CHF 10.- on reservation at lecture@fondation-janmichalski.ch