Aldona Gustas

Aldona Gustas (2 March 1932 – 8 December 2022) was a Lithuanian-German poet and illustrator.

Biography Gustas was born in the Lithuanian village of Karceviškiai in 1932. Her 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. She and her mother settled in Berlin where she has lived ever since. This group included Günter Grass, Günter Bruno Fuchs and Wolfdietrich Schnurre.

In 1997 Gustas received the Rahel Varnhagen Medal. Gustas was a member of the Varnhagen Society and Association of German Writers (VS). She was married to historian Georg Holmsten.

Style The central theme of Gustas' poetry is love and playful eroticism in a utopian world of fantasy. She often draws upon references to elements such as clouds, swans, sea gulls, flowers, swimming fish, stars etc., but often with laconic phrasing. 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. Her verses are often less sophisticated than those of other poets, with subjective sensations and exploring her interaction with the environment, often in paradoxical formulations. Gustas makes frequent references to Lithuanian "dainos" and folktales, modeling the landscape of her childhood in the poetic form. This fairytale landscape contributes to an epic sense of fantasy and dynamic interaction between nature and society. She 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.

Literature Theo Breuer, Aldona Gustas, Jetzt (In: T.B., Ohne Punkt & Komma. Lyrik in den 90er Jahren (1999) Hendrik Liersch (Hg.), Festschrift zum 70. Geburtstag von Aldona Gustas (2002)