Vaiva Grainytė is an interdisciplinary writer whose textual tonality ranges from poetry and literary projects to radio plays, collaborative contemporary art and theatre initiatives. Her practice is based on connections and juxtapositions of inner and outer realities, shape-shifting genres, cross-breeding irony and melancholy to paradoxical effect.

Currently, she is the guest editor of Spirit as a Journal (Feb 2026). Her recent site-specific collaboration on the play Fragments, exploring the phenomenon of war, premiered at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in November 2025. Her radio play Twenty Four was nominated for the Golden Stage Cross Award (2024) and Shorthlisted for 2026 BBC Audio Drama Awards in Best European Drama Category.

She is the co-author of the opera-performance Sun & Sea, listed among The Best Works of the 21st Century by Frieze magazine in 2025 and awarded the Golden Lion at the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. Along with her first collaborative, internationally acclaimed opera Have a Good Day! (2013), the piece continues to tour across the globe.

Grainytė has published the bilingual novel Roses & Potatoes (2022, LT/EN), the poetry collection Gorilla’s Archives (2019), and the essay collection Beijing Diaries (2012), all of which have received various nominations. Her essays have appeared internationally in e-Flux, *as a Journal, MAMbo, and OBIEG, among others. Her works have been translated into fifteen languages. 

She is an avid student of the Jungian approach to Tarot, a devoted forest walker, and an affectionate cat mom. She also obtained a shepardess license in Kabeliai in 2023).

Awards and distinctions

  • Shorthlisted for 2026 BBC Audio Drama Awards in Best European Drama Category: Radio play Twenty Four, 2025
  • The Golden Stage Cross Nomination: for the best Lithuanian Play Twenty Four, 2024
  • 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
  • The Golden Stage Cross for the best Lithuanian theater play Have a Good Day!, 2014
  • 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)

(c) Audrius Solominas

Contact: vaiva.grainyte@gmail.com

See also:
→  www.sunandsea.lt
→  haveagoodday.lt