Dear Readers:

We are incredibly pleased and excited to bring you a special feature (something we hope to do more of in the future): a selection of poetry and fiction by contemporary emerging writers from Lithuania, in conjunction with the Summer Literary Seminars program.

This project came about after I attended the 2014 Summer Literary Seminars poetry and photography workshops in Vilnius, Lithuania. At one of the participant readings at a cafe aside a meandering creek, the participants from the Lithuanian workshops read their work in Lithuanian and in English, having translated it themselves or with help from other participants. Listening to them read, such as Simonas Bernotas, I became physically excited. I was wowed. I told some friends back home and really wished they could have heard the reading. And then I thought–wait a minute. Maybe there is a way other people could hear this too….

And that, as they say, was that.

Many thanks to our Lithuanian contributors and the SLS Vilnius program, especially Erika Lastovskyte, who helped coordinate contacting the program participants and soliciting work.

–LYB