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Ukrainian Voices: A Talk with Lyuba Yakimchuk

Sunday, October 27, 2024

Online via Zoom

Description

It’s our third Ukrainian Voices event! Join us for an online conversation on Sunday, October 27 at 10 AM. Our special guests will include Lyuba Yakimchuk—the award-winning Ukrainian poet, playwright, and screenwriter, renowned for her poem collections such as Apricots of Donbas—in conversation with Amelia Glaser, distinguished scholar, translator, and author.

Apricots of Donbas is a phenomenal collection of poetry, told through the eyes of a woman who observes her homeland being ravaged by war. Silently, she strives to understand the chaos that surrounds her.

A sense of playfulness and repetition (a futuristic Ukrainian poetic style) characterizes Yakimchuk’s poetry. Conversations will address this unique voice and how language transforms during war. How does contrast—the harshness of coal and the delicate beauty of apricot blossoms—convey a vital sense of the Donbas region?

This event is part of Senchenko’s Ukrainian Day programming, in partnership with the Maple Hope Foundation, a Canadian not-for-profit organization committed to helping people suffering from the war in Ukraine, and the Upstart & Crow Literary Arts Society.

This event is taking place online and is free, but please reserve your spot here!

 

More about Upstart & Crow:

Located on Granville Island, Upstart & Crow is a literary arts studio for curious readers and creative storytellers alike. We are international in our outlook, and local in our sensibilities. We create opportunities to surface new talent and champion bold ideas through events, workshops, literary launches, unique partnerships — and yes, we also sell books!

Questions: hello@upstartandcrow.com.

Lyuba Yakimchuk

An award-winning Ukrainian poet, as well as a play and screenwriter (b.1985), Yakimchuk is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including Iak Moda (Like Fashion, 2009) and Abrykosy Donbasu (Apricots of Donbas, 2015, 2023), the film script for “Slovo” House: Unfinished Novel (2024) and documentary Slovo” House”, about Ukrainian artists persecuted by the totalitarian system against the backdrop of the Holodomor famine. Her writing has been translated into more than twenty languages. At the 2022 Grammy Awards, she performed her poem “Prayer” in English as part of John Legend’s performance of his song “Free.” The French translation of Apricots of Donbas was shortlisted for the 2024 Prix Mallarmé étranger de la traduction. This book has also been recorded in French by Catherine Deneuve and released in 2024 by Edition des Fames in Paris.

Yakimchuk has been personally affected by war: she lost her family home in the small town of Pervomaisk in Luhansk region, which borders Russia, and which Russian military forces occupied in 2014. Starting from her collection Apricots of Donbas to her latest work, her poetry embodies the story of a woman facing life’s changing traumatic situation for her family, her hometown, and her country. Yakimchuk’s poetry is versatile, often based on wordplay, combining both artistic subtlety and factual war-reporting style. Critics point out that playfulness in the face of catastrophe is a distinctive feature of Yakimchuk’s voice, evoking the legacy of the Ukrainian Futurists of the 1920s. Her poems are not just about the experience of war, but about identity reassembling, appealing to historical memory and attempts at its rebuilding.

Lyuba’s poetry has received international acclaim and has been translated into over 20 languages. The New York Times, BBC, CBC, and CNN have covered her works.

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