In Washington, DC, Ukraine House hosted a literary evening dedicated to the work of Ukrainian writer and literary award winner Marianna Kiyanovska and her collection of poems, Voices of Babyn Yar. The event was moderated by Irena Chalupa, a journalist and head of the Washington, D.C. branch of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America.
This was reported by Ukraine House.
"Her reading was extraordinary, touching everyone's hearts as her poems are shaped by both past and current events. Through her work, Marianna raises deep questions about memory, responsibility, and honoring the memory of those who witnessed unspeakable horrors," Ukraine House commented on the event.
In her poetry collection Voices of Babyn Yar, Ukrainian poet Marianna Kiyanovska honors the memory of Holocaust victims by telling their stories of horror, death, and survival in their own fictional voices. Skillfully and carefully intoned, Voices of Babyn Yar conveys the experiences of ordinary civilians who lived through the events leading up to the massacre at Babyn Yar in Kyiv in the first person. Conceived as a tribute to the victims, the book raises difficult questions about memory, responsibility, and honoring the memory of those who witnessed evil.
During the meeting, Marianna Kiyanovska shared her thoughts on the creative process, told how the idea of writing this book was born, and answered numerous questions from the audience.
Marianna Kiyanovska is a Ukrainian writer, translator, literary critic, and public figure whose works have been translated into eighteen languages. She is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, prose, and literary translations. She has won international literary competitions. In 2020, she received the prestigious Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine for her book Voices of Babyn Yar. The English translation of The Voices of Babyn Yar received the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Literary Translation for 2022 from the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the Translation Prize for 2021-22 from the American Association of Ukrainian Studies (AAUS). The book was also shortlisted for the 2023 English Literary Translation Award from the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL).
The presentation was followed by an autograph session, during which everyone had the opportunity to buy the book Voices of Babyn Yar and get an autograph from the author.
Author: Inna Mikhno