Ugnė Karvelis

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Ugnė Karvelis (June 13, 1935, Noreikiškės, Lithuania – March 4, 2002 in Paris, France) was a writer, a translator and a member of the UNESCO Executive Board from 1997 to 2002.

1 Biography
2 Works of note
3 External links
4 References

[edit] Biography

Ugnė Karvelis was born in a family of Lithuanian politician Petras Karvelis (1925-1929 Foreign Minister of Lithuania) and Ph.d, cultural activist Veronika Bakštytė. As in 1940 Soviet union occupied Lithuania Karvelis family left for Germany. In 1940 Karvelis studied in Sacre Coeur private school in Berlin, in 1943-1944 at Kaunas Aušra Gymnasium, 1945-1950 in Tübingen French school, in 1951-1952 at Sorbonne, ant in 1952-1956 at Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris, in the internationl relations departament. In 1957-1958 Karvelis continued her studies in Columbia University in New York, at history and economics departament.

Since 1955 she was working for Express mgazine in internagtional relations departament. Later for many years she worked as a publisher and editor in Editions Gallimard (1959-1983). At first Karvelis was an International department manageress, ad later manageres of Latin America, Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe department. Thanks to her many renown writers like Julio Cortázar (with whom she was married), Pablo Neruda and Octavio Paz were published in France. Later Karvelis was working as a literary critic. In 1988 she visited Lithuania, in 1991 she helped Lithuania to join UNESCO, and since 1993 she was permanent Lithuanian Ambassador to the UNESCO.^[1].

In 1991 Karvelis directed two documentary movies about Lithuania.

She translated into french many Lithuanian authors notably novels by Saulius Tomas Kondrotas (A Look of a Whipsnake (Lithuanian: Žalčio žvilgsnis), and by Ričardas Gavelis, Bitė Vilimaitė, Jurga Ivanauskaitė. She also translated classic poems by Kristijonas Donelaitis, Maironis, Balys Sruoga, Salomėja Nėris, Vincas Mykolaitis - Putinas, Jonas Aistis and of poems of modern authors - by Marcelijus Martinaitis (Passerelle de nuages Lithuanian: Debesų lieptais), Eduardas Mieželaitis, Justinas Marcinkevičius, Sigitas Geda, Antanas A. Jonynas, Gintaras Patackas, Almis Grybauskas and others.