1. Aldona Gustas was a Lithuanian-German poet and illustrator.
10 Facts About Aldona Gustas
1. 2.
Aldona Gustas's family lived for some time in Vilnius, but she and her mother fled then Russian-occupied Lithuania in 1941, when her father was seized and deported to Siberia.
3.
Aldona Gustas's texts have been translated into Lithuanian, Italian, Spanish, French, Russian, Polish and American English.
4.
In 1972 Aldona Gustas co-founded an important artistic forum in West Berlin, the "Berliner Malerpoeten", a group of artists who both wrote and illustrated their works.
5.
Aldona Gustas was a member of the Varnhagen Society and Association of German Writers.
6.
The central theme of Aldona Gustas' poetry is love and playful eroticism in a utopian world of fantasy.
7.
Aldona Gustas is very much a feminist poet and many of her poems are deeply personal and almost autobiographical, marking her as distinct from other contemporary German poets, not only in her ethnicity but in her subject matter.
8.
Aldona Gustas's verses are often less sophisticated than those of other poets, with subjective sensations and exploring her interaction with the environment, often in paradoxical formulations.
9.
Aldona Gustas makes frequent references to Lithuanian "dainos" and folktales, modeling the landscape of her childhood in the poetic form.
10.
Aldona Gustas has been cited as saying that in her works, she dwells in a city that grows in the forest; where nature spirits lurk behind each tree; where the moon strums a guitar; and where blue blossoms grow in underground garages.