© Mykola Kalytchuk

Taras Prochasko [Ukraine]

Taras Prochasko was born in 1968 in Ivano-Frankivsk. During his studies of biology at the University of Lviv he actively participated in the student and democratic movements of the city between 1989 and 1991. He then returned to his home town in 1992, first working for the Institute of Carpathian Forestry, and later as a teacher, bartender, security guard, and radio and television journalist. In 1998 he started to work for the »Express« newspaper in Lviv; later, he wrote for »Telekritika«, »Gazeta jogo mrij«, and »Galitsky korespondent«. Taras Prokhasko belongs to a circle of authors associated with the »Chetver« journal, published by Jurko Izdryk in Iviv-Frankivsk, where Prokhasko also worked as deputy editor from 1992 to 1994. In 1997 he worked as an editor at the Smoloskyp publishing house in Kyiv.

Since his highly acclaimed début »Inshi dni Anny« (1998; tr: Anna’s Other Days), he has published a large number of prose texts and essays, which are often autobiographically tinged, but avoid any form of self-representation and instead attempt to analyze the past and present. His literary role models include the writers Bohumil Hrabal, Jorge Luis Borges, Bruno Schulz, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, among others. The theme of home is equally important to him, and in his essays he often reflects on the difficult and hidden sides of Galician history in the form of a thoughtful and leisurely monologue, talking about the problems of ethics and morals. Taras Prochasko’s texts are characterized by their desire to philosophize, by their precision, and by formal experiments. In his texts he tries to detect subtle changes in what seems to be immutable and motionless. »Only a plant could write with such slowness and precision,« said Yuri Andrukhovych when describing his colleague’s working method. Prochasko also reveals himself to be a collector of experience in the broadest sense. His texts represent a summation of what is heard, seen, and felt. »There is no such thing as too much experience, superfluous experience, or wrong experience.«

Taras Prochasko has participated in musical performances and acted in short films. He has also translated Polish authors like Stanisław Vincenz, Andrzej Stasiuk, and others.

He also writes children’s books and columns. His texts have been translated into English, Polish, German, Russian, Serbian, and Czech. Taras Prochasko has received many awards, including the Joseph Conrad Literature Prize in 2007, the BBC Ukraine – Book of the Year in 2013 and in 2019, the prestigious Taras Shevchenko Prize in 2020, and numerous international scholarships, including the Villa Decius in Krakow and the Literary Colloquium Berlin.

He lives and works in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Bibliography

Інші дні Анни

Смолоскип

Київ, 1998

FM Галичина

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2001

НепрОсті

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2002

Лексикон таємних знань

Кальварія

Львів, 2003

З цього можна зробити кілька оповідань

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2005

Порт Франківськ: вибр. Фейлетони

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2006

БотакЄ

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2010

Хто зробить сніг

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2013

Одної і тої самої

Книги — XXI

Чернівці, 2013

Ознаки зрілості

Тріада плюс

Львів, 2014

Куди зникло море

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2014

Як зрозуміти козу

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2015

Радість контакту

Discursus

Івано-Франківськ, 2015

Життя і сніг

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2017.

Так, але…

Книги ХХІ

Чернівці, 2019

ENGLISH

Necropolis

In: Two Lands, New Visions : Stories from Canada and Ukraine

Coteau Books

Regina, 1998

The UnSimple

In: Ukrainian Literature. A Journal of Translations

Volume 2, 3

Shevchenko Scientific Society

[transl.: Uilleam Blacker]

Lviv, 2007, 2011

A Burnt Summer

In: Ukrainian Literature. A Journal of Translations

Volume 5

Shevchenko Scientific Society

[transl.: Olha Rudakevych]

Lviv, 2018