Mantas Balakauskas, a Lithuanian poet of the younger generation, studied history at the Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences. His poems have been published in the Lithuanian literary magazines Šiaurės atėnai, Literatūra ir menas and Naujoji Romuva, as well as in the Poetry Spring festival almanac. In 2013 he received the Pushkin Prize at the Druskininkai Poetic Fall festival. He co-founded the Slinktys cultural society in 2015, and his debut poetry collection Rome was published in 2016. Rome was nominated as one of the five best poetry books in the Book of the Year competition.