The Moon is a Pill

"Well, she has opportunities to read widely. It’s not all the same references as you might see, for example, in the Soviet period, where you had a lot of things having to do with animistic nature. You could talk about nature. It was allowed. And thereby you could address political themes without being direct. People understood the symbols, people understood what the poets wanted to say because they couldn’t really say what they wanted to say. Because for me, she epitomises this modern Lithuanian poet. There’s an international flavour to her poetry. She’s a new kind of poet—not someone merely writing poetry without being involved in the discussion that society is having. She’s very much an activist, organising events, able to pull people together to do things. That actually comes out in her poetry, too. She’s someone who constantly wants to push the borders of what poetry is, at least that’s how I see her work. I felt that it was important to also introduce her to a broader public. When people are making lists, they often forget the poetry, mostly focus on fiction. That was also why I chose a couple of collections of poetry. I want people to be aware of the fact that this work is out there. She has a very contemporary, very situated voice. She’s very implicated in European society today. Hers is not a voice rooted in a specific Lithuanian context necessarily."