Born on 03 03 1956 in Skaudvilė, Tauragė district.
Studied at secondary school in Šilalė, in 1972 entered the Telšiai Applied Art Technical College. In 1975-1977 he served in the Soviet army, acquired a speciality of meteorologist and left for a long-haul aviation airport in Ukraine. On his return, he worked as an electrician in Šilalė. In 1978, he entered the Kaunas Technical College of Applied Arts and two years later left for Russia. He lived and worked in Moscow, the North Caucasus, and Leningrad (now St Petersburg). In 1982 he returned to Lithuania and settled in Vilnius. He got a job at the Central Library of the Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences. From 1986 to 1990 he studied Lithuanian language and literature at Vilnius University. In 1993 he completed his doctoral studies, followed by a fellowship at the University of Illinois, USA. In 1996 he defended his doctoral thesis in humanities. Since 1994 he has been working at Vilnius University, since 1999 he has been an associate professor at the Department of Lithuanian Literature. He teaches 20th century Lithuanian literary history, orientation in Lithuanian literature, and classical Lithuanian prose. For many years he has been cooperating with the Lithuanian Centre for Professional Training of Teachers (now Ugdymo plėtrosotės centras), organising seminars and lecturing on literature for teachers in the Centre and in various Lithuanian cities. Since 2002, he has been the editor of the Critical Section of the literary magazine "Metai". Collaborates in the cultural press: "Šiaurės Atėnai", "Literatūra ir menas", "Kultūros barai" and elsewhere.