Above, from left to right, winners of the Dausa family literary award presented in Vilnius on April 21, 2026: My translator,  Kristina Aurylaitė, yours truly in the category of  translated (for Nebaigti reikalai – Some Unfinished Business), Darius Žiūra in the category of first book, and  Kotryna Zylė in the category of best overall.

I happened to be in Vilnius on all sorts of literary and parliamentary business. When I received the award above, I was lucky to have  five of my close relatives from Canada, including my brother Andy, along to attend the event. The whole lovely ceremony can also be viewed on YouTube here.

A long quiet time is coming up as I research a new nonfiction book on the generation of my father’s siblings, who included heroes and villains in the interwar period of Lithuania. I’ll be working from both KGB and national archives, and visiting.Lithuania repeatedly to speak to people with long memories. The working title of the piece is Shattered.

But to offset that serious project, I’ll try to work simultaneously on a comic novel set in seventies Weston, called Squirtt and Son(s’) Finest Books.

In private life, we have grandchildren to play with and visitors from abroad during a busy summer, so the research and writing will need to be squeezed into what free moments I can find.