UFU honors poet, writer and artist Emma Andiievska on her 70th anniversary (05/27/01)

UFU honors poet, writer and artist Emma Andiievska on her 70th anniversary

by Ika Koznarska Casanova

MUNICH - The Ukrainian Free University (UFU) hosted an author's evening and reception for poet, prose writer and artist Emma Andiievska on the occasion of the her 70th anniversary.

The event was held March 28, with UFU Rector Prof. Leonid Rudnytzky opening the evening, welcoming the honoree and guests and giving an overview of the work and critical reception of the prominent and multi-faceted writer and artist. Ms. Andiievska read from her latest works and upon request, also from her earlier ones.

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Ms. Andiievska was born in Donetsk in 1931. She emigrated to Germany in 1943, where she completed her higher education, then lived in France and the United States, and later returned to live in Germany where she now resides.

A highly original and prolific writer, she has published 15 collections of verse. The first collection "Poezii" (Poems) came out in 1951 and was followed by seven collections that appeared between 1958 and 1983.

The collection "Arkkhitekturni Ansambli (Architectural Ensembles) was published in 1989, with illustrations by the author. More recent works include "Znaky Tarok" (Tarot Signs, 1995, Dnipro) and "Mezhyrichchia" (Between Rivers, 1998, Vsesvit), both published in Kyiv, as well as "Segmenty Snu" (Dream Segments, Munich, 1998) and "Villi nad Morem" (Villas on the Sea, 2000).

Ms. Andiievska has also published four collections of short prose, the latest titled "Problema Holovy" (Head Problem), which came out in Lviv in 2000; and four novels, two of which have been reissued recently in Ukraine.

Her first collection of short prose, "Podorozh" (Journey, 1955) was published in a second revised edition by Dnipro publishers in Kyiv in 1995. Second editions of the novels "Roman pro Dobru Liudyny" (A Novel About a Good Person, 1973) and "Roman pro Liudske Pryznachennia" (A Novel About Human Destiny, 1982) appeared in Kyiv in 1993 and 1992, respectively. Ms. Andiievska was awarded the Tatiana and Omelan Antonovych literary award for "Roman pro Liudske Pryznachennia" in 1984. Her latest novel, "Kazky" (Stories) appeared last year.

Ms. Andiievska is a member of PEN Club and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences (Germany). She is the wife of the late eminent émigré literary scholar and critic and founding editor of the journal Suchasnist, Ivan Koshelivets (1907-1999).

The critical reception of Ms. Andiievska's works has been mixed and even contradictory. Danylo Husar Struk, referring to work written up to 1983, noted:

"The hermeticism of her poetry and the self-imposed and strictly adhered-to structural constraints of her prose do not lend themselves to easy comprehension.

"Andiievska's poetic world consists of surrealistic landscapes rooted in real descriptions of nature, which Andiievska views from various dimensions and to which she provides exquisite instrumentation. The multidimensional imagery produces an effect of simultaneity of events, coinciding with the notion of 'round time,' whose laws govern the multiepisodic but monolinear (chainlike) novels." (Encyclopedia of Ukraine).

Equally original and prolific as an artist, Ms. Andiievska has exhibited her works in the United States, Canada, Australia, Brazil and, since 1992, in Ukraine - with over 70 exhibits to her credit.

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