Serhiy Zhadan "Ukrainian Literature Between Revolution and War" (in Ukrainian)

DATE: Wednesday, 6 April 2016 TIME: 7:00 p.m. (reception at 6 p.m.) VENUE: ST. JOHN'S INSTITUTE, 11024 WHYTE AVE, EDMONTON

16 March 2016

Serhiy Zhadan is one of Ukraine's most popular poets and novelists. Born in Starobilsk, Luhansk oblast, he graduated from the Kharkiv Teachers' College and now lives and works in Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine.
Zhadan writes about the disillusionment, pain, shock and difficulties of Ukrainians in dealing with the post-Soviet legacy. His poetry has been described as "wild and funny," while his novels are written in a poetic style. Zhadan also performs as frontman for the ska band Sobaky v kosmosi (Dogs in Space) and enjoys the reputation of a countercultural figure.
In addition to writing his own poems, Serhiy Zhadan has translated poetry from German, English, Belarusian, and Russian. His own poems have been translated into twelve languages, including English.

Zhadan is the author of the following collections of poetry: Rose Degenerate (1993), Quotations (1995), General Judas (1995), Pepsi (1998), the very, very best poems, psychedelic stories of fighting and other bullshit (selected works, 1992-2000; 2000), Ballads about War and Reconstruction (2001), History of Culture at the Turn of This Century (2003), UkSSR (2004), Maradona (2007), Lili Marlene (2009), Ethiopia (2009), and Gunshot and Cutlery (2012). His prose works include: Big Mac (2003), Depeche Mode (2004), Anarchy in the UKR (2005), The Hymn of Democratic Youth (2006), Voroshylovhrad (2010), Big Mac and Other Stories (2011), and Mesopotamia (2014).


His novel Voroshylovhrad, set in the rust-belt region of eastern Ukraine, has won many awards, including the BBC Ukraine Book of the Decade award in 2014. In the same year Voroshylovhrad received the prestigious Jan Michalski Prize for Literature. Already translated into German, Voroshylovrad was recently translated into English and is forthcoming as Voroshilovgrad in 2016 by Deep Vellum Publishing.