Tautvyda Marcinkevičiūtė was born in 1955 in Kaunas, Lithuania. She studied Romance languages in high school and English at the Kaunas campus of Vilnius University. She is married to the poet Gintaras Patackas, with whom she has a son, Gajus. She has published ten books of poetry, in addition to several children’s books and many translations, including The Taming of the Shrew, Sylvia Plath’s poetry, and Shakespeare’s sonnets. She has been honored with the Kauno diena prize, and on more than one occasion with Lithuania’s most prestigious literary fellowship. Jonas Zdanys calls Marcinkevičiūtė’s voice “firm, self-directed, sometimes harsh, and at times even removed from easy and direct connection with traditional values and the expectations of others. It is on occasion a ragged and rasping voice that speaks with power to the ills women continue to suffer at the hands of others.”

‍