Wschodni Express: Vano Krueger’s “Ostatni pocałunek Ilijicza
trans. from Ukrainian by Bohdan Zadura
Wojciech Szot in conversation with the author and the translator
“Váno Krueger’s poetry is just as global in scope as the revolution was intended to be, not only because it features the Kremlin and the White House, the Vatican and Istanbul, Warsaw, Berlin, Lvov, Sarajevo and the Twin Towers, Mao and Radovan Karadžić, Freud and Ctulhu. The latter is a good opportunity to discuss Lovecraftian horror in several of the poems, including „Chemical Wedding,” which is dedicated to Elizabeth Bathory, the Bloody Lady of Čachtice, considered the bloodiest serial killer in history. The horrors accumulated in Krüeger’s poetry, often contrasted with an idyll that never anticipates them, allow the reader to experience a kind of catharsis that not all poetry can provide.” Bohdan Zadura.
Váno Krueger (real name Iwan Kołomijeć, b. 1976 r. in Kyiv) – A political scientist and graduate of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. One of the most controversial writers in modern Ukrainian literature, who refers to his style as „necro-communism”. Author of several volumes of poetry.
8.07 2022 | 17.00–18.00 | Bałagan – patio, Grodzka 5a, Lublin