Antanas Vaičiulaitis Literary Award announces winners

The recipients of the 2025 Antanas Vaičiulaitis Literary Award and its companion prize for young short-story writers have been announced, recognizing achievements in contemporary Lithuanian short fiction.

This year’s prize for young short-story writers was awarded to two authors:

• Ieva Marija Sokolovaitė for her short story “Glass Stones,” published in the literary journal Metai in 2024
• Gražina Kelmelytė for the short story “Blue,” published in 2025.

The awards will be presented June 23 at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore in Vilnius. Attendees will include the award’s patrons — Antanas Vaičiulaitis’ daughters, Aldona, Danutė and Joana Vaičiulaitytė — along with this year’s recipients, jury members and representatives of Metai. 

The jury includes literary scholars Žydronė Kolevinskienė, Juratė Sprindytė and Dainius Vaitikūnas, as well as writers Danutė Kalinauskaitė and Daina Opolskaitė. Poet and Metai editor-in-chief Antanas Šimkus will also participate in the event.

Established in 1994 by the Department of Lithuanian Studies at the then Vilnius Pedagogical University, the editorial board of Metai and the Vaičiulaitis family, the award is presented every two years for the best short story published in Metai. It was created to preserve Vaičiulaitis’ literary legacy and encourage the development of contemporary Lithuanian short fiction.

Past recipients include Romualdas Granauskas, Juozas Aputis, Renata Šerelytė, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė, Alvydas Šlepikas, Jurga Tumasonytė and Andrius Jakučiūnas, among others.

Also receiving the main Antanas Vaičiulaitis Literary Award this year was Ukrainian and Lithuanian author Yaroslav Melnyk. He was honored for his short story “No One Was Waiting for Any John,” published in the 11th issue of Metai in 2024.

Yaroslav Melnyk is a writer, philosopher and critic who works in Ukrainian, Lithuanian and other languages. The author of more than 10 books, he has been shortlisted multiple times for the BBC Book of the Year Award. His novel “Daleiky Prostir” won the award in 2013, and his works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Romanian, Croatian and other languages. 

Since 2016, a separate Antanas Vaičiulaitis Award for young short-story writers has been presented with support from the Joana Vaičiulaitienė Memorial Fund.

The Antanas Vaičiulaitis Literary Award is a biennial Lithuanian prize that recognizes outstanding contemporary short prose. Established in 1994, it honors the legacy of the prominent Lithuanian writer, critic, and translator Antanas Vaičiulaitis.

Earlier this year, the annual award of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union was presented to poet, translator and literary critic Marius Burokas.

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