Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University for a round table discussion on Envisioning Ukrainian Literature 2019: Versions and Demarcations, Part I.
What are the different ways that Ukrainian literature can be defined in 2019? Literature written in the Ukrainian language? Literature written by citizens of Ukraine in any language? Literature written in Ukrainian outside of Ukraine? Literature written by Ukrainians living outside of Ukraine, in any language? Literature written about Ukraine in any language? This event gathers a panel of writers and scholars at a round table to discuss various ways of belonging to Ukrainian literature.
Speakers: Vasyl Makhno, Oleksiy Nikitin, Maria Rewakowicz
Discussant: Yuri Shevchuk
Moderator: Mark Andryczyk
PARTICIPANTS:
Vasyl Makhno, born in Chortkiv, Ukraine, is a Ukrainian poet, prose writer, essayist, and translator. He is the author of twelve collections of poetry: Схима / Skhyma (1993), Самотність Цезаря / Caesar’s Solitude (1994), Книга пагорбів та годин / The Book of Hills and Hours (1996), Плавник риби / The Flipper of the Fish (2002), 38 віршів про Нью-Йорк і дещо інше / 38 Poems about New York and Some Other Things (2004), Cornelia Street Café: нові та вибрані вірші / Cornelia Street Café: New and Selected Poems (2007), Зимові листи / Winter Letters (2011), я хочу бути джазом і рок-н-ролом / I Want to be Jazz and Rock’n’Roll (2013), Ровер / Bike (2015) Єрусалимські вірші / Jerusalem Poems (2016) and most recently Паперовий міст / Paper Bridge (2017). He has also published a book of short stories Дім в Бейтінґ Голлов / House in Bating Hollow (2015) and two books of essays Парк кульутури і відпочинку імені Ґертруди Стайн / The Gertrude Stein Memorial Cultural and Recreation Park (2006) and Котилася торба / Horn of Plenty (2011). Makhno currently lives in New York City.
Oleksiy Nikitin, born in Kyiv, Ukraine, is a writer of prose and a member of the Ukrainian center of the International PEN-club. His books have been translated and published in Ukraine, Russia, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland and the United States. Nikitin is the author of several novels, a number of short prose pieces, and numerous short stories including: Рука птицелова/ The Bird Catcher’s Hand (2000) (awarded the Korolenko prize of the National Writers Union of Ukraine, for the best Ukrainian prose written in Russian), the novel Три жизни Сергея Бояршинова, банкира и художника / The Three Lives of Sergey Boyarshinov, a banker and artist (2003), the collection of short prose Окно на базар / A Window to the Market (2004), the novels Istemi (2011), Mahjong (2012), and Victory Park (2014). In 2014 Victory Park was awarded the Russian Prize, which is awarded to extraordinary prose works written in Russian by authors not living in Russia. The novel’s Ukrainian translation was published by Fabula in 2016. In 2016 the Ukrainian publishing house “Lyuta Sprava”, based in Kiev published his short novel entitled Санитар с Институтской / A Paramedic from Institutska St. In the same year Druzhba Narodov due to political reasons published it under a different title Shkil-Mozdil. The setting for most of Nikitin’s writings is Kyiv, Ukraine where he lives.
