In 2017, Christine Holbert (publisher) and Grace Mahoney (series editor) established the Lost Horse Press Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry Series. The series features dual-language editions of poetry from Ukraine’s most significant poets operating in the contemporary context. These critically-acclaimed and award-winning books showcase the diversity of poets who write from a range of geographies, poetic perspectives, and literary movements. Of critical importance is the fact that many of the poems featured in this series meditate on the significance of Ukraine’s independence and the positionality of...

After reading Dzvinia Orlowsky’s and Ali Kinsella’s translations of Halyna Kruk’s new manuscript of poems titled Lost in Living, I wasn’t sure at first just how to broach the profoundly grievous but also transcendent subject matter of Kruk’s poems. I was curious about how a poet in the midst of devastating war could write about both her country’s and her own personal losses with what William Butler Yeats called “a cold eye.” Kruk’s poetry rises memorably to the occasion of its subject matter...

On February 3rd, the English team will launch “Writing under Fire: Poetry and Prose from Ukraine and the Black Country,” a collection featuring 10 Ukrainian writers reflecting on the Russian war. Responding to them, 10 writers from the Black Country aim to establish a transcultural dialogue, supporting Ukrainian artists. Proceeds go to Ukrainian writers and readers, dedicated to the late Victoria Amelina.
Join the event in the Georgian Gallery on February 3rd at 6:30.
https://www.wolvesliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/writing-under-fire.html?fbclid=IwAR13XijRUtzXFHw6jSd4I4Lyq76THdAgrFACO6eTelWhw_xYNJztTzgvZho

In the Hour of War: Poems from Ukraine

“This is the silence before the explosion, between volleys of rifle fire, the silence of foreboding, of fear and insomnia, and the silence of complicity. The poems were written in the hour of war, in the lyrics of passing through fire….” So write the editors, two of America’s most significant poets, Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky, in their introduction.
Ukraine may be the only country on earth that owes its existence, at least in...

These poems were originally published in Italian translation by Alessandro Achilli and Yarina Grusha Possamai in the anthology Poeti d’Ucraina, Mondadori 2022, Pina Piccolo’s translation is based on their Italian version.

STOPPING THE FALL
Stopping the fall
for three carefree days in Rimini
where in the Piazza dell’Agnolo’s fountain you
still
launch paper boats of hopes
but they never return…
 
 
WOMAN WITH A LOBSTER HEAD
Woman with the head of a lobster
and the body of a jellyfish,
why do you say in this incomprehensible language Read more »