Jurgis Kunčinas (13 January 1947 in

Alytus Alytus is a city with municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the capital of Alytus County. Its population in 2022 was 53,925. Alytus is the historical centre of the Dzūkija region. The city lies on the banks of the Nemunas River. T ...

, Lithuania – 13 December 2002) was a poet, novelist, translator and essayist. He has been described as the chronicler of Soviet bohemianism, who poeticized the individual's internal autonomy as an alternative to the absurdity of social life. His works, originally published in the

Lithuanian language Lithuanian ( ) is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.8 milli ...

, have been translated into English, German, Russian, Estonian, Belarusian, Swedish, and Polish. Kunčinas received the

Lithuanian Writers Union The Lithuanian Association for Writers is an association for writers and poets in Lithuania, founded in 1922. It gives annual prizes and awards to talented Lithuanian writers. The Association also has its own publishing house. References Exter ...

' prize in 1994 for the novel ''Tūla'', set largely in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional u ...

Užupis Užupis ( yi, זארעטשע, be, Зарэчча, russian: Заречье, pl, Zarzecze) is a neighborhood in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, largely located in Vilnius's old town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Užupis means "beyond the ...

district. His 1996 compilation of essays, ''Laba diena, pone Enrike!'', received an award from the city of Vilnius. The public library in his hometown Alytus has been renamed after him and holds a biennial literary festival in his memory.

Selected bibliography

* Takas per girią (1977) (poetry) * Atidėtas rugsėjis (1984) (poetry) * Atgimimo kryžius (1990) (poetry) * Namai be žiburių (1991) (poetry) * Vaizdas į mėnulį (1989) (essays) * Baltųjų sūrių naktis (1995) (essays) * Laba diena, pone Enrike! (1996) (essays) * Glisono kilpa (1991) (novel) * Tūla (1993) (novel); translated into English as ''Tūla'', Flossmoor, IL: Pica Pica Press, 2016.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kuncinas, Jurgis 1947 births 2002 deaths Burials at Antakalnis Cemetery 20th-century essayists 20th-century novelists 20th-century poets Lithuanian essayists Lithuanian novelists Lithuanian male poets People from Alytus