Vaiva Grainytė (born 1984) is a Lithuanian writer, playwright, and poet, whose text-based practice shifts between genres and disciplines. Like an observant anthropologist, Grainytė challenges mundane social issues to take on a paradoxical and defamiliarised nature through poetic interpretation. She is the recipient of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art (2019), and, together with her co-authors, the winner in of the Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art (2019) for the opera-performance Sun and Sea. Her books – the essay collection Beijing Diaries (2012) and the poetry collection Gorilla’s Archives (2019) – have each been nominated for Lithuanian Book of the Year award and were included among the twelve most creative books of the year they were published. She is the librettist of the opera Have a Good Day! (2013), which has earned international awards in Europe. Her latest book is a bilingual (Lithuanian-English) cross-genre novel Roses and Potatoes (2022). The author’s work has been translated into more than ten languages.
Awards and distinctions
- The Golden Lion of the Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art for the Best National Participation, 2019, for the opera-performance Sun and Sea
- Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art, 2019
- The Order for Merits to Lithuania, 2019
- Ministry of Culture Award, 2019
- Nomination for the Book of the Year awards, and the top twelve listings of the most creative books in Lithuania, 2019, for Gorilla’s Archives
- B.Dauguvietis Golden Earring, 2018, for innovative theater solutions
- Fast Forward prize for young theater makers, Germany, 2015, for Have a Good Day!
- Young Artist Prize, 2015
- Golden Stage Cross for the best Lithuanian theater play, 2014, for Have a Good Day!
- Baltic Theatre Festival awards: for the best libretto and social sensitivity, 2014, Latvia, for Have a Good Day!
- Winner of Radio Playwriting Competition, Lithuanian National Radio and Television, 2014, for Axis deviation
- Music Theater NOW award, 2014, Sweden, for Have a Good Day!
- Augustinas Gricius premium, 2012, for Beijing Diaries
- Nomination for the Book of the Year awards, and the top twelve listings of the most creative books in Lithuania, 2012, for Beijing Diaries
Residencies
- 2024 Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France
- 2023 Creative Pastures, Kabeliai, Lithuania
- 2019 Radar Sofia, Sofia, Bulgaria
- 2019 Air Literatur, Amal, Sweden
- 2016 Nordic House, Reykjavik, Iceland
- 2016–2017 Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, Germany
- 2015 Literaturhaus Villa Clementine, Wiesbaden, Germany
- 2015 KulturKontakt Austria, Vienna, Austria
Selected Press (exclusively in English)
- Sun & Sea review – a delightful opera about the end of the world
The Guardian, 07.01.2023 - Sun & Sea (Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Graintyė & Lina Lapelytė, Sydney Festival)
Limelight, 07.01.2023 - Dogs, togs and critics agog: climate crisis opera washes ashore in Sydney
The Guardian, 06.01.2023 - Lie back and think of the apocalypse: climate crisis opera Sun & Sea
The Guardian, 15.06.2022 - Review: In ‘Sun & Sea,’ We Laze Away the End of the World
The New York Times Critic’s Pick, 16.09.2021 - A Climate Opera Arrives in New York, With 21 Tons of Sand
The New York Times, 14.09.2021 - The director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and writer Vaiva Grainytė about how they use humour to highlight the climate crisis
The Cultural Frontline, BBC World Service, 08.05.2021 - Rašytoja, dramaturgė, poetė Vaiva Grainytė apie Stanislovo Kuzmos „Širdies donorą“ (1987)
- Vaiva Grainytė: I feel like the quarantine made me return to my “inner roots”
Vilnius Review, 08.05.2020 - Sun and Sea (Marina): Performing Climate Change
Paradoxa No. 31 – Climate Fictions (2019-2020) - Jonas Mekas on opera Have a Good Day! (video diary)
Contact: vaiva.grainyte@gmail.com
See also:
→ www.sunandsea.lt
→ haveagoodday.lt