What better way to get to know a country and its people than through literature?

Today, we talk about Ukrainian writers and what we can learn about this country through its poetry and prose.

University of Massachusetts professor, novelist and poet Askold Melnyczuk joins us. His parents were Ukrainian refugees.

He also works as a Ukrainian translator and he’ll talk to us about making Ukrainian literature available to the English-speaking world.

Have you read any works by Ukrainian writers?

GUEST:

Askold Melnyczuk - writer and professor at University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the founder of Arrowsmith Press.

If you're interested in reading Ukrainian literature here are Askold Menyczuk's recommendations.

POETRY

• Eccentric Days of Hope and Sorrow by Natalka Bilotserkivets
• Persephone Blues by Oksana Lutsyshyna
• Apricots of Donbas by Lyuba Yakimchuk
• Selected Poems by Oksana Zabuzhko
• Selected Poems by Serhiy Zhadan

FICTION

• Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov
• Sweet Darusya: A Tale of Two Villages by Maria Matios
• Your Ad Could Go Here by Oksana Zabuzhko
• The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko
• The Orphanage by Serhiy Zhadan

ESSAYSIn Isolation: Dispatches from Occupied Donbas by Stanislav Aseyev

Our programming is made possible thanks to listeners like you. Please consider supporting this show and Connecticut Public with a donation today by visiting ctpublic.org/donate. 

Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.