Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series: “Decomposition” with Lyuba Yakimchuk

Lyuba Yakimchuk, a Ukrainian poet, screenwriter and journalist, was born in Pervomaisk, Luhansk oblast, Ukraine. She is the author of several full-length poetry collections, including Like FASHION and Apricots of Donbas, and the film script for The Word Building.

Ms. Yakimchuk has received many literary awards, including the International Slavic Poetic Award, the Bohdan-Ihor Antonych Prize and the Smoloskyp Prize, three of Ukraine’s most prestigious awards for young poets. She is the winner of the International Literary Contest “Coronation of the Word”. Her poems have appeared in journals in Ukraine, USA, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Israel, Lithuania, and Belarus. Her poems have been translated into English, Swedish, German, French, Polish, Hebrew, Slovak, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Belarusian and Russian, and her essays into English and Swedish.

She performs in a musical and poetic duet with the Ukrainian double bass player Mark Tokar; their projects include Apricots of Donbas and Women, Smoke, and Dangerous Things. Her poetry has been performed by the singer Mariana Sadovska (Cologne) and improvised by vocalist Olesya Zdorovetska (Dublin).

Lyuba Yakimchuk also works as a cultural manager. She organized the “Semenko Year” project (2012) dedicated to the Ukrainian futurist writer Mykahil’ Semenko, and was curator for the literary programs Cultural Forum “Donkult” (2015, Lviv) and Cultural Forum “GaliciaKult” (2016, Kharkiv).

She lives in Kyiv.

The event is part of the Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series cosponsored by the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute, Columbia University and by the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

This event is free and open to the public.

For more information please visit harriman.colubia.edu or contact Dr. Mark Andryczyk at 212-854-4697 or at ma2634@columbia.edu.