Nationality Lithuanian Role Poet Name Tomas Venclova | Citizenship LithuanianAmerican | |
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Born 11 September 1937 (age 87) Klaipeda, Lithuania ( 1937-09-11 ) Occupation philologist, essayist, writer, poet Children Andrius Venclova, Marija Venclova Parents Eliza Rackauskaite-Vencloviene, Antanas Venclova Books Forms of Hope, Aleksander Wat, Vilnius: A Personal History, Winter dialogue, Ksztalty nadziei | ||
i believed that communism was the bright future of humanity tomas venclova video
Tomas Venclova (born 11 September 1937, Klaipėda) is a Lithuanian poet, prose writer, scholar, philologist and translator of literature. He is one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group. In 1977, following his dissident activities, he was forced to emigrate and was deprived of his Soviet citizenship. Since 1980 he has taught Russian and Polish literature at Yale University. Considered a major figure in world literature, he has received many awards, including the Prize of Two Nations (received jointly with Czesław Miłosz), and The Person of Tolerance of the Year Award from the Sugihara Foundation, among other honors.
Contents
- i believed that communism was the bright future of humanity tomas venclova video
- Tomas venclova on language putin and historical optimism
- Life
- Selected honors and awards
- References
Tomas venclova on language putin and historical optimism
Life
Tomas Venclova was born in Klaipėda in 1937. His father, Antanas, was a poet and Soviet politician. Tomas was educated at Vilnius University. He was one of the five founding members of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, and took part in Lithuanian and Russian dissident movements. He became friends with poets Anna Akhmatova and Boris Pasternak, as well as Natalya Gorbanevskaya and Joseph Brodsky. In Vilnius, he translated Baudelaire, T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Robert Frost, Osip Mandelstam, Anna Akhmatova, Boris Pasternak, and other authors into Lithuanian. In Lithuania he was forbidden to publish his own work, except in samizdat, although one volume was appeared in 1972, entitled A Sign of Speech. In 1977, following his dissident activities, he was forced to emigrate.
He was invited by Czesław Miłosz to teach at the University of California at Berkeley. He did not return to Lithuania until its independence in 1991. Since 1980 he has taught Russian and Polish literature at Yale University.
He has published over twenty books including volumes of poetry, literary criticism, political commentary, literary biography, translation and books on Vilnius. His work has been translated into many languages including by Czesław Miłosz into Polish, and by Joseph Brodsky into Russian. He is active in the contemporary cultural life of Lithuania, and is one of its most well-respected figures.
He lives in New Haven (Connecticut, United States), in the past also temporarily in Vilnius and Kraków.