Judita Vaičiūnaitė – one of the best poetesses of the second half of the 20th century. She was born on July 12, 1937, in Kaunas, into the family of a famous doctor and surrounded by culture. The poetess tells that she tried to express her personal life in her poems to the best of her abilities.

From her childhood, the future poetess grew up surrounded by driven people with a flair for creative ideas. According to J. Vaičiūnaitė, these people helped set off the spark of her creativity as she started to write at eleven years of age. To Judita, writing came as natural as breathing. From Kaunas, where she lived till she was seventeen, J. Vaičiūnaitė used to travel to Vilnius. There, Petras Vaičiūnas lived, along with another uncle, the Dominican church’s parish priest, Juozas Vaičiūnas, who also cherished art.

After the death of her father, the family endured a period of hard times. She moved to Vilnius, studied Lithuanian Studies at University as well as music – something at which she was clearly talented.

In 1959, J. Vaičiūnaitė graduated from Vilnius University in Lithuanian Studies. Although her studies at Vilnius University had rather disappointed her, (one has to remember at what time she studied), nevertheless, she met her two best literary friends – fellow students, Aušra Sluckaitė and Tomas Venclova, who contributed to the formation of J. Vaičiūnaitė’s poetic script. The poetess worked in the editorial offices of Literatūra ir menas, (Literature and Art) Kalba Vilnius, (Vilnius Talks) and Naujasis dienovidi (The new Meridian). In 1986, she received a national prize for the selection of Nemigos Aitvaris (The Sleepless Kite) published in 1995.

In 1996, she was awarded the Baltijos Asamblėjos premija, (The Baltic Assembly Award).

Her first set of poetry, Pavasorio akvarelės, (Spring water-colours) debuted in 1960. Later she published sets of poems, poetry and fairy tales for children.

J. Vaičiūnaitė has translated the works of A. Achmatova, O. Bergoc, D. Maksimovič, and L. Carroll. Also, the author’s books have been translated into English, Norwegian, and Russian.

In 2007, the publishing house, “Versus Aurius”, republished an earlier set of J. Vaičiūnaitė’s poetry, Dulkėta Kauno Saulė, (The Dusty sun of Kaunas) including the photographs by Rūta Vaiškelytė-Staskevičienė.

Source: “Rašyk.lt”