New journal Ukrainian Literature debuts (09/05/04)

New journal Ukrainian Literature debuts

by Vasyl Lopukh

NEW YORK - The birth of a new journal of English translations of Ukrainian literature was announced on the Internet on the day when Ukraine was celebrating its 13th anniversary of independence. The sponsor and publisher of this journal is the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the U.S.

Ukrainian Literature: A Journal of Translations first made its appearance on the Internet on two sites: www.shevchenko.org and www.UkrainianLiterature.org. The journal will also be published in hard copy.

This is the first English-language journal devoted to Ukrainian literature and the first Ukrainian literary periodical publication on the Internet. The editor of the journal is Maxim Tarnawsky, professor of Ukrainian literature at the University of Toronto.

The international editorial board consists of Profs. Marko Pavlyshyn (Australia), Taras Koznarsky (Canada), Michael M. Naydan and Askold Melnyczuk (both from the U.S.). All are also members of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Ulana Pasicznyk serves as the journal's manuscript editor.

The first issue of Ukrainian Literature encompasses 263 pages and presents the prose works of Valerii Shevchuk, Volodymyr Dibrova, Spyrydon Cherkasenko, Ievheniia Kononenko, Yuri Pokalchuk, Borys Antonenko-Davydovych, Vasyl Gabor, Lenid Mosendz, Emma Andijewska and Oleksandr Irvanets; six of these are contemporary living writers of Ukraine.

Poetry is represented by selections from Taras Shevchenko and Pavlo Tychyna. Translators whose works appears in the issue are: Olha Rudakevych, Uliana Pasicznyk, Michael M. Naydan, Anatole Bilenko, Svitlana Kobets, Mark Andryczyk, Yaryna Yakubyak, Taras Koznarsky, Marta Baziuk, Marta D. Olynyk and Maria Kachmar.

This volume concludes with Marta Tarnawsky's selected bibliography of translations from Ukrainian literature published in book form since 2000. In his introduction, Prof. Tarnawsky, the editor, notes the uneven history of translation from Ukrainian literature, commenting that "the establishment of a forum for translations of Ukrainian literature into English is an important development reversing a pattern of neglect."

This journal of translations will be published biennially, both in electronic form and in a paper edition. It is likely not only to find thousands of new readers for Ukrainian literature in the English-speaking world, but also to exert an influence on the Ukrainian field of translations and even on the development of Ukrainian literature in general.

The Shevchenko Scientific Society is planning a major public presentation of the new journal in New York City after the first volume is published in a printed edition. Until then, the readers can become acquainted with Ukrainian Literature by reading it on the Internet at either of the two addresses given above.

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