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Lesia Voronina  [ Ukraine ]

The writer, translator, and journalist Lesia Voronina was born in Kyiv in 1955. She is the granddaughter of the well-known Ukrainian writer Prochor Voronin. She graduated from the University of Kyiv with a major in philology in 1979. Before that, she worked for the Ukrainian Writers’ Association, as a laboratory assistant at a school, as an electrician in a wood processing plant, and as a museum guide, among other professions. She hitchhiked across Ukraine and kayaked to rivers in Poland and the Masurian Lake District.

From 1987 to 1991, Voronina was responsible for the literature and art section of the magazine »Ukraina«. She then worked for the children’s magazine »Sonjaschnik« (tr: Sunflower). Around the same time, she became a commentator at the Radio Ukraine International in 1997, where she worked as an author and presenter of the cultural programs »Ukrainska kultura sogodni i sawshdi« (tr: Ukrainian Culture Today and Always), »Mandrivets« (tr: The Traveler) and »Widlunnja tisjacolit« (tr: Echoes of the Millennium). In her broadcasts, she primarily addressed modern Ukrainian language and culture.

From October 1994 to March 1995, she traveled to Edmonton at the invitation of the Ministry of Education of the Province of Alberta (Canada) and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, where she participated in the preparation of a language training project for bilingual Ukrainian-English schools in the province of Alberta. Today, Voronina is a presenter at the Ukrainian cultural radio station. Since the beginning of 2011, she has also directed the newly founded children’s publishing house »Prudki rawlik« (tr: Ambitious Snail).

Voronina has published her children’s books under various pseudonyms, including Nina Roron and Olena Werbna. Under the pseudonym Gavrilo Gava, she created more than a hundred comics for the magazine »Sonjaschnik« over the course of thirteen years. Among her most popular books are a series of stories about the »Superagent 000« (»U paschi krokodila«, tr: A Crocodile’s Revenge; »Pastka u pidsemelli«, tr: Dungeon; »Taemnicja pidwodnogo mista«, tr: Secret Underwater City; etc.) and »Taemnicja solotogo kenguru« (2004, tr: Secrets of a Solitary Kangaroo), but also adventure stories like »Taemnicja cornogo osera« (2006, tr: The Secret of the Black Lake) and »Prigodi golubogo papugi« (2018, tr: The Adventures of the Blue Parrot).

Voronina has won numerous literary competitions. »Taemnicja solotogo kenguru« was Book of the Year in Ukraine in 2004, she won the national BBC competition in 2008, and in 2009 she received first prize at the 5th Moscow International Competition »The Art of the Book«.

Lesja Voronina translates mainly from Polish, namely works by Stanisław Lem, Sławomir Mrożek, Anna Kowalska, Anna Karwińska, Helena Bechlerowa, and others.

The author lives in Kyiv.

Bibliography

Суперагент 000
Грані-T
Київ, 1996

Таємниця золотого кенгуру
Теза
Вінниця, 2004

Прибулець із країни Нямликів
Грані-T
Київ, 2007

Сни Ганса Християна
Грані-T
Київ, 2009

Планета смугастих равликів
Прудкий равлик
Київ, 2011

 Різдвяна казка від слона Гудзика
Видавництво Старого Лева
Львів, 2013

Таємне Товариство Брехунів, або Пастка для синьоморда
Знання
Київ, 2015

Пригоди голубого папуги
(Ілюстрації: Катерина Штанко)
Знання
Київ, 2018