Marianna Kiyanovska   [ Ukraine ]

The Ukrainian writer, poet, essayist, translator, and literary critic Marianna Kiyanovska was born in 1973 in Nesterov, now Zhovkva, in the Lviv region. In 1997 she graduated from the Department of Philosophy at the University of Lviv. As a student, she was a member of the literary association MMUNNA TUGA, a group of women writers whose name is derived from the first letters of their first names and from TUGA: »Товариство усамітнених графоманок« (Society of Lonely Graphomaniacs). Her first volume of poetry, »Інкарнація« (tr: Reincarnation), was published in 1997. Her début shows a thematic variety of »reincarnations« of different characters known from ancient Greek myths and the Bible. In doing so, she lends these figures, such as Medea or Mary Magdalene, new facets, emphasizing their physicality and in many ways contradicting their canonical depiction and the common interpretation of certain events. Since her début, ten further collections of poetry have appeared, including »Вінки сонетів« (1999; tr: Wreath of Sonnets), »Міфотворення« (2000; tr: Creation of Myths), and “Книга Адама” (2004; tr: Book of Adam), among others. She has also periodically collaborated on feminist themes with the Ukrainian poet, children’s writer, literary scholar, publicist, and co-founder of the Vydavnyctvo staroho leva publishing house Mariana Savka. In 2020, Kiyanovska was awarded the Shevchenko Prize for her book »Бабин Яр. Голосами« (2017; tr: The Voices of Babyn Yar). Against the backdrop of the largest massacre of Jews, Sinti, and Roma during World War II in 1941, in her texts she attempts to break the silence between the dead and those who are living today. To this end, she has recorded a large number of statements made on behalf, so to say, of those involved in this catastrophe on the outskirts of Kyiv: murderers, assassins, and observers. Kiyanovska uses eloquent and complex poetic tools to convey the whispers, moans, and groans of letters from Jews, Germans, Ukrainians, and Russians. The author found the inspiration for these texts through her work on the fate of Janusz Korczak and the poetic texts of Paul Celan, Julian Tuwim, and Bolesław Leśmian. Kiyanovska’s fundamental understanding of Jewish identity can be traced to her many years of translating texts by Jewish authors.

In 2008, Kiyanovska also published a collection of prose called »Стежка вздовж ріки«, which brings together five novellas.

In 2003 Kiyanovska was a scholarship recipient of the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland’s »Gaude Polonia« program. From 2004 to 2006 she was the head of the New Polish Literature column of »Kryvbas Kurier«. Her works have been translated into English, Belarusian, Polish, Serbian, and Russian, and have also appeared in several anthologies. She has been awarded, among others, the Bogdan Igor Antonich Prize and the Nestor Chronicle Prize for the best literary publication in 2006.

The author lives in Lviv.

 

Bibliography

 

Інкарнація

Львів-Київ, 1997

 

Вінки сонетів

Зерна

Париж-Львів-Цвікау, 1999

 

Міфотворення

Смолоскип

Київ, 2001

 

Кохання і війна

(з Мар’яною Савкою)

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2002

 

Книга Адама

Лілея-НВ

Івано-Франківськ, 2004

 

Дещо щоденне

Факт

Київ, 2008

 

Стежка вздовж ріки

Факт

Київ, 2008

 

ДО ЕР

Піраміда

Львів, 2014

 

373

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2014

 

Листи з Литви / Листи зі Львова

(з Мар’яною Савкою)

Видавництво Старого Лева

Львів, 2016

 

Бабин Яр. Голосами

Дух і Літера

Київ, 2017