© Nastia Telikova

 

Yuriy Izdryk  [ Ukraine ]

The writer, cultural scholar, and editor Yuriy Izdryk was born in 1962 in Kalush in the Ivano-Frankivsk region. While at school, he wrote his first poems and took piano and cello lessons. After graduating from high school, Izdryk studied engineering at the National Polytechnic School in Lviv. During his studies, he played in a rock band and took part in various theater projects, after which he worked as an engineer in Ivano-Frankivsk from 1984 and at an institute in Kalush from 1986 to 1990. In 1989, he founded the magazine »Chetver«, which he ran from 1992 together with his friend and companion Yurii Andrukhovych. Since the late 1980s, he has also participated in many exhibitions and art events, designed books and magazines, and recorded music. He also began publishing his first works in magazines: the prose cycle »Ostannja wijna« (tr: The Last War) and the poetry cycle »Desjat wirschiw pro Batkiwschinug« (tr: Ten Poems about the Motherland). Izdryk is a part of the so-called »Stanislau Phenomenon«, a writer’s group in the Ivano-Frankivsk region with a post-modernist focus.

After establishing himself as a writer, Izdryk turned to the visual arts and participated in numerous art exhibitions between 1990 and 1994. (Today, his paintings are in private collections and galleries in Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Austria, Spain, the USA, and more.) Izdryk then returned to writing and adapted novels by Dickens and Salinger for the stage. His story »Ostriw Krk« (1994; tr: Island of Krk) first appeared in the magazine »Suschasnist« and later, in a collection of stories.

His breakthrough as a writer came with his novel »Wozzek« (1998). This was followed by »Podwijnij Leon« (2000; tr: Double Leon). In 2008, the thirtieth and last edition of »Chetver« was published; one year later, Izdryk published the essay collections »Fleschka 2GB« (tr: USB Stick 2GB) and »TAKE«, for which he received the 2010 »BBC Book of the Year« award. In 2013, he released his poetry collection »Izdryk. Yu«, the texts of which had previously been published on the author’s blog »Mertwij schodennik« (tr: The Dead Diary).

Izdryk is involved in the street magazine »Prosto neba« (tr: Only the Sky) and the music project »DrumTIatr« (in collaboration with the poet and musician Grigory Semenchuk). Together with the journalist and cultural critic Eugenia Nesterovich and the photographer Alexander Naselenko, he launched the media project »Summa« in 2014. Involving continuous communication between authors and audiences in Ukraine, the end product was a book of the same name.

The author lives in Kalush.

 

Bibliography

 

Інший формат: Юрко Іздрик
Лілея-НВ
Івано-Франківськ, 2003

ТАКЕ
Клуб сімейного дозвілля
Харків, 2009

Флешка-2GB
Грані-T
Київ, 2009

UNDERWOR(L)D
Клуб сімейного дозвілля
Харків, 2011

Іздрик. Ю
Видавництво Старого Лева
Львів, 2013

Номінація
Видавництво Старого Лева
Львів, 2016

Summa
[Разом із Євгенією Нестерович]
Meridian Czernowitz
Чернівці, 2016

Меланхолії
Видавництво Старого Лева
Львів, 2019