Mariana Savka @ Solomia Savka
Mariana Savka [Ukraine]
Mariana Savka was born in the western Ukrainian city of Kopychyntsi in 1973. Her father is the theatre director and civil rights campaigner Orest Savka. She already showed interest in theatre and music at a young age and later studied Ukrainian philology in Lviv. During her university studies, she was a member of the literary group MMJUNNA TUGA (Society of Lonely Graphomanics), whose name was created using the initial letters of the member’s first names. After continuing her studies at the Les Kurbas Theatre, she worked at the Stefanyk National Science Library in Lviv, where she was a young researcher in the periodicals department and in 2002 published her historical-bibliographical examination of the Ukrainian emigrant press in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s and 1930s. In the 1990s she was also an editor for the literature section of the »Postup« newspaper. Together with her husband Mykola Scheyko, in 2001 she founded the Widawnictwa Starogo Lewa publishing house in Lviv, which originally specialised in children’s and young adult literature, but now also publishes literature for adults.
In 1995, she debuted her first collection of poetry, »Oholeni rusla« (tr. Naked Riverbeds), followed by the collections »Maljunki na kameni« (1998, tr. Paintings on Stones), »Girka mandragora« (2002, tr. Bitter Mandrake), for which she was recognised at the IX. Publisher’s Forum in Lviv, »Kochannja i wijna« (2002, tr. Love and War), and »Boston-dshaz« (2008, tr. Boston Jazz), among others. She also wrote verse and stories for children. Her children’s book »Kazka pro Starogo Lewa« (2011, tr. The Tale of the Old Lion) was included in the international youth library »The White Raven«. For the anthology »Skype Mama« (2013), she wrote the chapter »With a Child’s Eyes«, in which she reveals the situation of the estimated five million, some of which illegal, Ukrainian migratory workers who only see their children via Skype. In 2016, she initiated the project »12 Unbelievable Women«, in which she interviews influential women in Ukraine, always at the same café in Lviv. Each of the interviews were dedicated to specific values such as equality, independence, tolerance, gratitude, empathy, or freedom. In 2017, she published a book about these interviews. 2017 gab Savka die Anthologie »That Is Lviv: A Collection of Urban Stories« mit Texten von Yuri Andrukhovych, Viktor Morozov, Halyna Vdovychenko, Marianna Kianovska, Oksana Zabuzhko u.a. heraus. Im Januar 2021 startete sie den YouTube-Kanal »Marianichi for the night« [»Мар’яничі на ніч«], wo sie Dialoge mit Künstlern, Musikern und Autoren zu aktuellen Themen veröffentlicht.
For her literary works, Savka won the first prize at the Fackel literature competition in 1998 and the International Wassyl Stus Prize in 2003. 2021 wurde sie von der Zeitschrift »Novoe Vremya« zu einer der 100 erfolgreichsten Frauen der Ukraine im Bereich Kultur und Medien gewählt. Her poems have been translated into English, Russian, Polish, Belarussian, Lithuanian, German, and Portuguese. Savka actively campaigns against changes to the use of language laws and the alienation between eastern and western Ukraine.
Bibliography
Oголені русла
Астон
Ternopil, 1995
Малюнки на камені
Смолоскип
Kyiv, 1998
Гірка мандрагора
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2002
Кохання і війна
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2002
Чи є в бабуїна бабуся?
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2003
Квіти цмину
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2006
Бостон-джаз
Факт
Kyiv, 2008
Тінь риби
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2010
Казка про Старого Лева
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2011
Пора плодів і квітів
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2013
Босоніжки для стоніжки
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2015
Колисанки і дрімливі вірші
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2017
Родинна абетка
[іл. В. Штанка]
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2019
Оптика Бога
[іл. Романа Романишин / Андрій Лесів]
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2019
Марчик та Мурчик
[іл. Наталія Олійник]
Видавництво Старого Лева
Lviv, 2021
OTHER LANGUAGES
Eight Notes from the Blue Angel
Arrowsmith
[Translation: Askold Melnyczuk]
Boston, 2007
Mit Kinderaugen
In: Skype Mama
fotoTAPETA
[Ü: Kati Brunner]
Berlin, 2013