Toma Gudelytė has won the 2025 Sophie Castille Awards – Italian for her translation of Mergaitė su šautuvu: istorija apie mergaitę partizanę (“Girl with a Gun: A Story About a Girl Partisan”), written by Marius Marcinkevičius with art by Lina Itagaki, first published in Lithuanian by the creators own imprint, Misteris Pinkmanas, and published as La ragazza con il fucile in Italy by Lavieri Edizioni.
The Sophie Castille Awards, now running in various countries, including the UK, where it is supported by the Lakes International Comic Art Festival, recognise the work of translators of graphic novels.
Toma Gudelytė was announced as the winner of the Sophie Castille Awards – Italian at Comicon Naples yesterday.
The other nominations were Luce Lacquaniti for Shubbek Lubbek. Ogni tuo desiderio, by Deena Mohamed (published by Coconino Press); Stefano Andrea Cresti for Diario (Journal), by Fabrice Neaud (Tunué); Giovanni Stigliano Messut forEsther, by Keizo Miyanishii (In Your Face Comix); and Anders Fransson for Le Lanterne di Nedzu, by Rui Tenreiro (Saldapress).
Tüdruk Püssiga, or La ragazza con il fucile has not yet been published in English, available in Italian here (AmazonUK Affiliate Link), but Lina Itagaki’s previous graphic novel, Siberian Haiku, created with Jurga Vile, was published by SelfMadeHero in 2020.
The book has prompted the creation of a tie-in board game, released in Lithuania by Terra Publica.
The story has also won the Premio Pranas Mašiots award in 2023 for best book for children and teenagers, and earned Special Mention in the Bologna Ragazzi Awards 2024 competition in the “Comics – Middle Grade” category; and “Illustration of the Year” Award from Associazione degli editori lituani, (the Association of Lithuanian Publishers).
In this powerful story, little Magda witnesses one of the most intense pages of World War Two. After the defeat of the German army, with the arrival of the Russian army, her family is deported to Siberia.
Having fortunately escaped the roundup, the little girl is “adopted” by a group of partisans that include her school teacher and becomes, also thanks to her passion for the life and customs of the American Indians, their little heroine.
She thus faces her deepest fears, the pain of loss and homesickness, learning to take care of herself and her companions. Her story of courage and resilience is inspired by the stories of a girl who actually lived for some time in a shelter with the fighters.
“This is a story that has been brewing over many years,” author Marius Marcinkevičius told Lithuanian lifestyle magazine Žmonės in 2023, when the novel was first published. “I didn’t set out to write it because I wasn’t a writer at the time, I just listened to what my grandparents and parents told me. My friend’s grandmother was a partisan liaison. Her four brothers fought in the forest: she once mentioned to my friend and me that at the time she was visiting the partisans, a girl lived in a nearby unit, in a bunker.” The story became etched in his memory at the time, but thirty years had to pass before he could put it into a book, and he has discovered many other survivors of the war have similar tales.
Born in Lithuania in 1983, Toma Gudelytė is a freelance translator and journalist and a member of Lithuanian Literary Translators Association. Her work has included the translation of Lithuanian plays for theatre into Italian and she has contributed articles and translations to the Italian theatre magazine Hystrio for a special issue dedicated to contemporary Lithuanian theatre.
Since 2015, Gudelytė has collaborated as an author and translator to Literatura ir menas, one of the most important literary and culture magazines in Lithuania. In 2015, she was awarded the Dominykas Urbas award by the Lithuanian Literary Translators Association for the best debut translation of the year, for translating Igor Argamante’s novel Jericho 1941, dedicated to the memory of the Vilnius ghetto. In 2016, she translated the Italian historical novel Q by Luther Blissett, nominated as one of the five best literary translations in Lithuanian of the year. She has also translated works by Primo Levi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Umberto Eco Italo Calvino (translating Cosmic Comics), and others. Her recent translations include the Ascanio Celestini novel War Idiot and the graphic novel One Story, by Gipi.
The Sophie Castille Awards were created in honour of Sophie Castille, international rights director and V. P. of licensing for Mediatoon and cofounder and director of Europe Comics, who died unexpectedly in 2022. Since the late 1990s, Sophie built bridges for bandes dessinées and their authors from France and around the world. She was a constant source of creativity, motivating publishers from all over the world and encouraging them to exchange ideas. She became a key figure in the growth of comics and graphic novel translations around the world.
Comics and graphic novels, considered in France as The Ninth Art, are a diverse and dynamic international medium that is growing in popularity every year and is loved the world over. Spreading these works internationally through translation is a way to bring the world together.
The Creators of “Girl with a Gun”
Marius Marcinkevičius is a doctor, poet and writer. After the birth of his children, he started to write, releasing a novel and several books for children and, in 2023 released Mergaitė su šautuvu: istorija apie mergaitę partizanę, his best seller. His books have been translated in many foreign languages, have received numerous awards in Lithuania and abroad and have been adapted for theatre pieces, musicals and animated cartoons. In 2020 Marius was added to the IBBY honours list.
His picture book story The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust, a deeply moving story about hope and friendship in one of the darkest times in history, illustrated by Inga Dagile, was published in English in 2023 by Thames & Hudson Ltd.
Lina Itagaki is an award-winning illustrator, comics and zine artist whose work also includes Siberian Haiku, published in English by SelfMadeHero. It was nominated the Main Year’s Award at the Book Art contest in Lithuania and was selected as the most beautiful book of the year 2017.
Lina feels telling the story of “The Girl with the Gun” as a graphic novel was important, the format popular with children, especially those less likely to read traditional books. “Today’s children, who have grown up with screens, can no longer concentrate on long texts,” she said in 2023. “They are used to reading images as well. In a graphic novel, text and images are constantly changing, complementing each other, it seems as if you are watching a movie. This is very engaging for children.”
Misteris Pinkmanas publish picture books, illustrated books and graphic novels/comics, which cover a wide range of themes – from historical narratives and poetry to sensitive topics such as autism. Committed to excellence, they strive to produce books that are engaging, meaningful.
• La ragazza con il fucile, not yet published in English, is available in Italian here (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
• For more information on the Sophie Castille Awards, head to sophie-castille-awards.org
• Toma Gudelytė on the challenges facing translators
• Lithuanian publisher Misteris Pinkmanas is online at pinkmanas.com
• Head to lavieri.it for more information on this Italian publisher
• Siberian Haiku by Jurga Vile and Lina Itagaki (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
One morning in June 1941, a quiet village in Central Lithuania is shaken out of its slumber by the sudden arrival of the Soviet Army. Eight-year-old Algiukas awakes to the sound of Russian soldiers pounding on the door. His family are given ten minutes to pack up their things. They are not told where they’re going or for how long.
An airless freight train carries them from the fertile lands of rural Lithuania to the snowy plains of the Siberian taiga. There, in the distant, dismal North, they begin a life marked by endless hunger and unrelenting cold. And yet the darkness of exile is lightened, for Algiukas, by flights of imagination. This curious, brave and adaptable child transforms hardship into adventure.
Drawing on her father’s exile in Siberia, writer Jurga Vile brings to light a neglected, even suppressed, episode from the history of the Soviet Union. Beautifully drawn by Lina Itagaki, Siberian Haiku uses the child’s perspective to tell an unforgettable story of courage and human endurance.
• The Pebble: An Allegory of the Holocaust (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
By Marius Marcinkevicius, illustrarted by Inga Dagile
A deeply moving story about hope and friendship in one of the darkest times in history.
Eitan and his best friend Rivka live in a place where children laugh, dogs bark, and neighbours chat. But no one can leave, and once you go through the gates, you never come back…
This story takes place in Vilnius in Lithuania – but it could have happened anywhere in Europe during World War II, when Jews were forced into ghettos and suffered greatly in the hands of the Nazis. Conveying the horrors of the Holocaust in a sensitive but powerful way, Marius Marcinkevicius’ tale tells the story of two children who experience the horror of separation and Nazi persecution, only to find each other again thanks to a pebble, which becomes a symbol of endurance and survival. Inga Dagile’s illustrations are the perfect accompaniment to this story about true friendship, fear – and hope.
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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Talented people all!
And Toma Gudelytė’s artwork is superb!