Works
Vanished Lands: Memory and Postmemory in North American Lithuanian Diaspora Literature
Chasing the Northern Lights: Driving Iceland's Ring Road
Having reached an age where I am no longer needed by anyone, I am free to take to the open road. I am a driver with grit, and that means I’m not a timid driver, but not a recklessly fearless one either. I drive an ancient Toyota stick shift on gravel back roads, and I can cruise through New York City without breaking a sweat. All this, I felt, prepared me to drive Iceland’s 828-mile (1,332 km) two-lane Ring Road solo, encircling the island in seven days. What I was not prepared for was the stunning beauty of the land I would witness and how deeply Iceland would sear into my soul.
The novel, That Unspoken Word, closely follows the diary of the young Lithuanian Jewish poet, Matilda Olkinaitė, who was killed in the Holocaust in her hometown of Panemunėlis in the summer of 1941. The novel recreates the emotional truth of the last year of Matilda's life, expanding upon the words of her diary, interweaving her poems and creative process. Through Matilda's thoughts, memories, and writings, That Unspoken Word narrates the tragic love story of a Jewish girl in love with a Lithuanian man on the eve of the Nazi occupation of Lithuania.
During 2017 – 2021, I researched the life of Matilda Olkinaitė. I was able to engage in conversations about Matilda's life with her two childhood friends, Liucija Neniškytė Vizgirdienė and Genovaitė Šukytė, who were still alive at that time. These two close friends from Matilda's childhood helped me understand in rich emotional detail who Matilda was as a girl and how her family had lived in the small town of Panemunėlis during the years of Lithuania's first independence. The Panemunėlis and Kupiškis region historian Violeta Aleknienė was the first to research the life and murders of the Olkinas family. Much of the narrative of this novel is based on her research. In 2017, with the permission of Irena Veisaitė, I began translating Matilda Olkinaitė's diary, poems, and short prose pieces into English. Subsequently my translations and my introductory essay, "The Silenced Muse" were published in the book, The Unlocked Diary, edited by Mindaugas Kvietkauskas. In those years, through my work analyzing Matilda's poetry, researching her life, and translating her words, I delved so deeply into her essence that I felt as though I could feel Matilda's presence. After I completed researching and writing my essays about the life and creative work of Matilda Olkinaitė, translating her diary and poems, creating a performance piece based on her life and poetry, I still felt as though Matilda had more to share with the world. That was when I began writing my novel, That Unspoken Word, closely based on Matilda's diary, written during 1940-1941, her poetry, and her friends' reminiscences, and archival research.