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Eastern Express: Book launches – “Wasi, nasi oraz inni” and “Poprzednie życie”

18:30-20:30

Book launches: ”Oleksandr Bojczenko’s “Wasi, nasi oraz inni” and Mykola Riabczuk’s “Poprzednie życie”, discussion, reading book excerpts.

Panelists: Oleksandr Bojczenko, Mykola Riabczuk, Natałka Biłocerkiweć, Andrij Saweneć and Bohdan Zadura. Moderators – Grażyna Lutosławska, Aleksandra Zińczuk

Where: Próba Cafe – patio, Grodzka 5a

Oleksandr Bojczenko “Wasi, nasi oraz inni”
“Wasi, nasi oraz inni” is a collection of essays in which Oleksandr Bojczenko “traces” the successors of the first European intellectual – Socrates whose literary presences is a testimony to society’s maturity and at the same time, an expression of its conscience. So then, who are the contemporary wise men of literature? Wasi / Yours – are the writer’s thoughts about Polish writers, including Gombrowicz, Kołakowski, Herling-Grudziński, Herbert; nasi (ours) are a reflection on Ukrainian literature, especially the first literary generation of “recovered voices”; inni (others) stands for Russian culture.

Oleksandr Bojczenko (b.1970) – Ukrainian literary critic and academic, essayist, translator, columnist. Author of collections of essays: “Something like Chautauqua” (2003), “Chautauqua Plus” (2004), “To book”(2011), “”My own among strangers” (2011), “50 percent wrong” (2015). Moreover, he has translated numerous works from Polish and Russian, including Tadeusz Borowski, Leszek Kołakowski, Marek Hłasko, Jerzy Pilch, Olga Tokarczuk, Andrzej Stasiuk, Daniel Odija. A fellow of Gaude Polonia Scholarship granted by the Minister of Culture of the Republic of Poland (2005, 2008, 2013). In 2014, he was awarded a Medal for Merits to the Polish Culture.

Mykola Riabczuk “Poprzednie życie”

The Polish translation of a selection of articles by Mykola Riabczuk – Ukrainian literary critic, publicist and poet.

“Riabczuk presents bold and innovative ideas (…). He does not hesitate to break historical myths, always animated by an intellectual joy that makes the pages we are going to read so stimulating. His irony and freedom of tone remind me of the best of recent Polish literature. He jostles the usual categories, the most inveterate clichés. The picture of the country he depicts, looks very dire and the prospects disturbing. But the very existence of such free and intelligent minds in Ukraine offers a good reason not to lose hope”. Alen Besançon, introduction to “De la ‚Petite Russie’ à l’Ukraine”
Alen Besançon, introduction to “De la ‚Petite Russie’ à l’Ukraine

Mykola Riabczuk (b. 1953 in Lutsk) – graduate of Lviv Polytechnic National University and M.Gorki Literature Institute in Moscow. He was the deputy editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine “Wseswit” and the vice editor of the magazine “Krytyka”. Several translations of his books were published in Poland, including: “Od Malorusije do Ukrajine” (2002), “Dwie Ukrainy” (2004, second edition:2006), “Ogród Metternicha” (2011), “Ukraina. Syndrom postkolonialny” (2015). A winner of Pocul Foundation Award, the award of the literary quarterly “Akcent”. He has also been granted the badge of honour “Bene Merito” by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland for working towards good Polish-Ukrainian relations. Currently, he is the chairman of the Ukrainian PEN Club and a juror of the Angelus Central European Literature Award. He is an associate of the Institute of Political and Ethno-national Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, guest lectures at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv and at the Centre for East European Studies at the University of Warsaw.