Harvard hosts young Ukrainian American writers (01/03/99)

Harvard hosts young Ukrainian American writers

by Khristina Lew

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Five young Ukrainian American writers from across the United States met at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute here on November 6-8, 1998, to discuss the role their heritage plays in the creation of their work. The diverse group of poets and prose writers was brought together by Askold Melnyczuk, editor of the literary journal Agni and author of the novel "What is Told," in the first such conference of Ukrainian American writers sponsored by HURI.

The conference posed the question "Made in America or Made in Ukraine?" and explored such issues as the marginality of a Ukrainian American upbringing, Ukrainian American - Jewish American relations, and how the Ukrainian American first-generation experience impacts each individual's work.

Opinions were as diverse as the five participants. Olena Kalytiak Davis, a poet, was raised in Detroit and currently resides in Juneau, Alaska. Her first book of poetry, "And Her Soul Out of Nothing," is the winner of the 1997 Brittingham Prize in Poetry.

Kristina Lucenko, a prose writer, will receive her master's degree in creative writing from the City College of New York in January 1999. She has contributed to and served as an editor of the college's literary journal, the Promethean. She lives in downtown New York City's "Ukrainian Village" section.

Dzvinia Orlowsky, a poet, grew up in the Midwest and currently lives with her husband and two children on the South Shore of Massachusetts. Her first book of poetry, "A Handful of Bees," was published in 1994. Her second book will be published next spring. She is a founding editor of Four Way Books.

Larissa Szporluk, a poet, teaches at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Her first book of poetry, "Dark Sky Question," is the winner of the 1997 Barnard New Women Poets Prize.

This writer is a former assistant editor of The Ukrainian Weekly.

Mr. Melnyczuk, a professor at Boston University, served as the moderator of the conference and organized its four sessions. He explained the impetus for organizing a conference of Ukrainian American writers: "I was deeply curious to see whether there was some larger sense of commonality experienced by American writers, at least one of whose parents came from the same country."

"My own feeling at the end of the day was that yes, there was - five extraordinary writers who took part in the event discovered they shared singular and familiar ghosts, and that they had the strength and the responsibility of a common history," he continued.

"While the difference between each of the participating writers was striking, the fact that they had common ground and had an opportunity to discuss it in the semi-formal setting seemed to me the real surprise and the source of some real solace and inspiration," Mr. Melnyczuk noted.

Participants met informally on Friday, November 6. The conference's first session on Saturday gave the writers an opportunity to get to know one another and explore issues of concern. "A lot of questions, a lot of stirrings came to the surface," said Ms. Orlowsky. "It was good to get together, to have a reiteration of people with similar questions, fears, vulnerabilities and literary boundaries."

During the second session participants met with James Carroll, best-selling novelist and columnist for the Boston Globe. Mr. Carroll's memoir, "An American Requiem: God, My Father and the War that Came Between Us," won the National Book Award in 1997. Many of his novels chronicle Boston and the American political scene, with emphasis on the Irish American community.

Mr. Carroll, an Irish American, discussed the importance he places on maintaining his Irish heritage. He recalled being inspired to apply for an Irish passport after former President Mary Robinson, in her inaugural address, welcomed all people of Irish descent back to Ireland. He now carries two passports and told conference participants, "I claim the right to be more than one thing."

Saturday's third session was addressed by Bohdan Rubchak, one of the founders of the New York Group, a coalition of Ukrainian writers and poets. A poet who writes in his native Ukrainian, Mr. Rubchak, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, discussed the experience of émigré writers.

Conference participants met on Sunday morning for a final session with Volodymyr Dibrova, a noted prose writer from Ukraine and current writer-in-residence at HURI. His two novellas, "Peltse" and "Pentameron," were recently translated and published by Northwestern University Press. Mr. Dibrova discussed his experience as a writer in Ukraine prior to its independence.

The conference culminated in a reading of selected works by the five conference participants at Harvard University's Lamont Library.

"The aspect that I found most striking about the experience was that one could take away the question of Ukrainian-ness and still say that this was a conference of first-class writers, each with distinctive individual voices and each already with mature identities. The fact that each also is grappling with questions of what it means to be Ukrainian American in the 1990s leads to fascinating results for anyone interested in American literature," said Robert De Lossa, director of publications for HURI. The Ukrainian institute plans to publish an anthology of each participant's work next year.

Mr. De Lossa, who sat in on all the conference's sessions, said he was pleased with its outcome. "The conference tried to achieve a number of things. It was a symposium of people grappling with issues of ethnicity and identity in very creative ways. At the same time, it was a gathering of a new generation of Ukrainian American writers in a way that hadn't previously occurred. Therefore, this weekend may well have witnessed the birth of a new literary phenomenon."

Mr. Melnyczuk said he left the conference with the hope that a second conference could take place with more participants, including "Jewish Ukrainian Americans, who could take part in a dialogue about Ukraine, its past, present and future." He added that the conference felt powerful and important, and expressed his desire that "the Ukrainian American community continue to make its presence felt through visible contributions to the American culture that has allowed it to thrive."

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