Lina Ramona Vitkauskas (Lithuanian-Canadian-US, b. 1973) is an evaporating language photographer = award-winning cinepoet / poet. Her cinepoems have placed as a finalist in several video poetry festivals in the UK, EU, Mexico, and US. In addition, in 2020, she received a PEN America Relief Grant to complete her poetry collection (soon to be visual arts collaboration) Between Plague & Kleptocracy: Invented Poetic Creations & Conversations of Seva & Bill.
Her 2018 collection of cinepoems, based upon her chapbook, White Stockings, is a collaboration with visual artist Tess Cortes and have been screened at the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) conference at Stanford University as well as at the Ready Freddy Film Festival in Chicago.
She is the author of the poetry books Ministry of Foreign Affairs – MOFA (Secret Airplanes Press, 2018); White Stockings (White Hole Press, 2016); SPINY RETINAS (Mutable Sound, 2014); Professional Poetry (White Hole Press, 2013); A Neon Tryst (Shearsman Books, 2013); HONEY IS A SHE (Plastique Press, 2012); THE RANGE OF YOUR AMAZING NOTHING (Ravenna Press, 2010); and Failed Star Spawns Planet/Star (dancing girl press, 2006).
Her most recent essay appears in an anthology dedicated to the poetry of Lithuanian filmmaker and Anthology Film Archives founder, Jonas Mekas, titled Message Ahead: Poets Respond to the Poems of Jonas Mekas (Rail Editions – Brooklyn Rail). She has also performed voice-over narration in the independent documentary film, George: The Story of George Mačiunas & Fluxus, directed by Fluxus taxi driver and artist, Jeffrey Perkins, and featuring Yoko Ono. The documentary has been screened at MoMA as well as in Amsterdam, London, and Vilnius.
Lina is past winner of the Henry Miller Memorial Library Ping Pong Journal Award (selected by Eleni Sikelianos) and of The Poetry Center of Chicago's Juried Reading Award (selected by Brenda Hillman). She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Wright State University, where she participated in a summer workshop with Nikky Finney, the 2012 National Book Award Winner in Poetry.
