The writer Vytautė Žilinskaitė was escorted to her last trip Culture

April 4 the deceased writer V. Žilinskaitė literary scholar Kęstutis Urba identified as one of the most significant works of the 20th century. Creators of Lithuanian children’s literaturewhose work, although not easy and simple, will live on as long as there is at least one child who can read in Lithuanian.

The writer herself back in 1979. formulated his mission to write for children in the following words: “To develop moral resilience”.

“V. Žilinskaitė thought that it is possible and even necessary for children to write regarding serious, painful things. She was not afraid that children would wipe away tears while reading her works. This is a toughening concept of children’s literature. She herself has stated that her highest aspiration is to convey laughter with tears,” K. Urba told 15min.

Vytautė Žilinskaitė was born in Kaunas in 1930, but since the age of eight she lived with her family in Vilnius.

in 1950 she graduated from Vilnius Salomejos Nėries High School and entered Vilnius University, where she studied journalism. After his studies, he worked in the editorial office of the popular magazine “Jaunimo gretos”.

In 1961, he published his first collection of poems “Don’t stop for an hour”, later he wrote prose, satirical and humorous short stories, in which he wittily criticized spiritual primitiveness and negative social phenomena. Her biting humor and satires have become classics of our literature.

Ecology, politics, social sensitivity, love, friendship – these are the most important themes found in her works. Her texts are characterized by irony, striking contrasts, paradoxes, hyperboles, and mythical motifs.

Meanwhile, in children’s literature, V. Žilinskaitė did not limit herself to one genre, she wrote short stories, literary tales, poems and plays.

“My highest aspiration is to interweave laughter with tears… What might be more wonderful when a child laughs and there are still tears in his eyes?” – said the writer.

In 1963, she became a member of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union, and from 1966 dedicated exclusively to creative work.

“The author’s exceptional attention to words, careful selection of them, demand for an artistic sound, creation of inventive novelties that later caught on in the colloquial language – all these skills, self-imposed demands might and should be learned from V. Žilinskaitė by modern writers, especially those writing for children”, – regarding V. Žilinskaitė is claimed by Diana Gancevskaitė, author of books for young people.

Photo of the writer’s family archive/Vytautė Žilinskaitė

The author’s books are published in English, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Bulgarian, Estonian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, German, Moldavian, Portuguese and other languages.

When asked in one interview whether it was difficult to write satire in the Soviet era, V. Žilinskaitė said that it was easy to write, but it was more than difficult to print something sharp.

“No matter how strange, I was saved by the insurer itself – Moscow. The so-called all-Union humor and satire magazine “Krokodilas” began to print my humoresques, even awarded a couple of times. And they were translated and reprinted from Russian by foreign publications, even the annual humor and satire magazine “A’Propos” of the nations of the world. Two of my short stories were printed on the first pages of the first issue: “Sisyphus and the guards”, “Sisyphus and the woman”, said V. Žilinskaitė.

The writer has received many prizes and honorable awards for her work.

Vytautė Žilinskaitė even won three prizes of the Lithuanian branch of the International Association of Children and Youth Literature (IBBY) (1996, 2001, 2007), the Šarūnas Marčiulionis prize for the best children’s book
literary work (1997, 2001).

in 2005 she was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania, and in 2007 Children’s Literature Prize of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania. J

Her short story “Kintas” in 2008. was included in the list of honor of the International Association of Literature for Children and Youth (IBBY).

In 2022, she was awarded the Lithuanian Writers’ Union Centenary Prize.