'From Three Worlds' launched at Columbia (12/01/96)

'From Three Worlds' launched at Columbia

by Khristina Lew

NEW YORK - An English-language collection of contemporary Ukrainian literature, "From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine," was launched at an evening of readings and discussion here at the Harriman Institute at Columbia University on October 23.

"The publication of 'From Three Worlds' is a most welcome event in America," said Prof. Leonid Rudnytzky, president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. "The translations are very good, and the editors should be commended."

The anthology features the prose and poetry of 15 Ukrainian writers translated into the English language, interspersed with the artwork of Ukrainians Ivan Marchuk and Mykola Kumanovsky, and photographs by Ukrainian American Tania D'Avignon.

Readings from the fiction of Yevhen Pashkovsky and the poetry of Natalka Bilotserkivets opened the literary evening. Led by Virlana Tkacz of the Yara Arts Group, the readings culminated in a staccato rendition of Victor Neborak's poem "Flying Head": "An invisible ax is in the city,/ they dragged the headless bodies off the scaffold,/ so gaping fools can drink blood cheap./ Scrape that rusty smear off the forehead/ A PHANTOM - A FLYING HEAD!"

The anthology's merit as representative of the indictment of Soviet imperialism in Ukrainian literature of the 1980s was discussed by a distinguished list of panelists, including Prof. Rudnytzky; Bohdan Boychuk, poet, editor of Svito-Vyd in Kyiv; Prof. Vitaly Chernetsky of Columbia University; Halyna Hryn, translator, Yale University; and Larissa Onyshkevych, vice-president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and literary editor of the journal Suchasnist.

Two of the anthology's guest editors, Prof. Michael Naydan and Askold Melnyczuk, rounded out the panel. Prof. Naydan, an award-winning translator and the chairman of the Slavic department at Pennsylvania State University, discussed the editor's efforts to "mainstream what is considered a marginal literature." Mr. Melnyczuk, editor of the literary journal The Agni Review and author of the novel "What is Told," named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times Book Review in 1994, detailed how the volume came to fruition.

Co-published by Zephyr Press and Glas, a Moscow-based independent literary journal, "From Three Worlds" was conceived by Glas' consulting editor in the U.S. and Zephyr Press co-founder Ed Hogan in the summer of 1993; the anthology was released in October.

Works were nominated by guest editors Mykola Riabchuk and poet Oksana Zabuzhko in Kyiv, selected by Mr. Melnyczuk and Prof. Naydan in the U.S., and translated by native speakers working with American writers.

An introduction by Solomea Pavlychko, author, critic and editorial director of Osnovy Publishers in Kyiv, provides a backdrop for the "new Ukrainian literature" movement of the 1980s.

The October 23 book launch attracted 70 people. A launch for the collection held at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute on November 22, featuring Ms. Zabuzhko and prose writer Volodymyr Dibrova reading from their own works, was attended by 120.

"From Three Worlds: New Writing from Ukraine" can be purchased directly from the publisher: Zephyr Press, 13 Robinson St., Somerville, MA 02145; telephone, (617) 628-9726; fax, (617) 776-8246; for $15 including postage ($27 for two copies, $12 each for three or more copies; checks, Visa and MasterCard accepted) - or through the Yevshan Ukrainian catalogue, (800) 265-9858, for $12.95 plus shipping and handling.