Ukrainian Artists #3: Modern authors

5th March 2022

Here is a short list of modern Ukrainian writers that are achieving wider recognition. Before that, I can recommend an anthology called ‘From Three Worlds: new Ukrainian writing’ from 1996.

You may recognise the cover art, by Ivan Marchuk https://thaypaulsnotes.com/2022/03/03/ukrainian-artists-1-ivan-marchuk/

The collection has short fiction and poems by, among others, Vololdymyr Dibrova, Oksana Zabuzhko and Bohdan Zholdak.

One of my favourites was a tale entitled ‘To Find Yourself in a Garden‘ by Halyna Pahutiak (born 1958 in the Lviv region, graduated from Kyiv). She has published four books of prose, as well as a novella, ‘The Sun‘.

In 2021, three Ukrainian writers were shortlisted for the EBRD Literary Prize: Andrey Kurkov, Andriy Lyubka, and Oksana Zabuzhko for ‘You Ad Could Go Here‘.

‘Carbide’ has been describes as a tragicomedy, the story of an alcoholic teacher who decides to build a tunnel and smuggle the Ukrainian population into the EU. I have not read this novel, but it is certainly on my ‘to read’ list.

Finally, there is Andrey Kurkov

‘Grey Bees’ is set in the ‘grey zone’ between Ukraine and Russia. The story’s protagonist moves to the Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

For further information, have a look at this lithub website: https://lithub.com/love-ukraine-as-you-would-the-sun-10-ukrainian-books-worth-reading-in-english/

Happy Reading

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