Tag: Ukraine

Fence

On By Olga ZilberbourgIn Publication, TranslationLeave a comment

I’m writing to share the latest of my translations to find home in a literary magazine. I’m continuing to translate the work of a Kyiv-based poet Olga Bragina, and this piece appeared in the latest issue of Fence Magazine (#43, Spring-Summer Issue).

A magazine cover on the background of green grass
Open spread of a magazine on the background of green grass

I’m sharing the piece here, but please do click through to the magazine and buy an issue or subscribe for a year. Fence takes cool experimental stuff and they take really good care of writers and writing, and supporting a magazine like this contributes immediately to the vibrancy of our literary world.

I want to go to an art show but I think what if they start bombing

the day after tomorrow is the first anniversary of the invasion      what if they start bombing

because who knows how many clones of that psychopathic KGB man are bombing us into the ground

because he doesn’t like our country and particularly my city

so what        I too often dislike this city        when we have traffic jams      black ice      intercity trains departing at six a.m.        I dislike it all      life might be more comfortable in any other city of Europe

and no I don’t think the way some do that the Motherland is sick but I love it anyway      no I don’t think the Motherland is sick      these thoughts belong to a different paradigm

my paradigm are the words of the Kyiv-born Golda Meir      “We want to live. Our neighbors want us dead. This doesn’t leave a lot of room for compromise.”

I’m so glad to know that art shows are opening in our city      I know they are opening

Lit Crawl: Building Community in the Face of War

On By Olga ZilberbourgIn EventLeave a comment

Bay Area friends — come out to our Lit Crawl event on Saturday, October 21, 5 pm at 518 Valencia.

This event was a long time in the making. As Ukraine approaches its 600th day of defending its sovereignty against Russia’s assault, it remains paramount to continue to tell our stories and to refute the propaganda narratives that are festering in the social media spaces.

I’m really looking forward to hearing the poems, stories, personal essays and more from this group of Bay Area writers with deep personal connections to both Ukraine and Russia.

Lit Crawl is a part of San Francisco’s Litquake festival going on right now. Make sure to check out the full program and to participate in other events. It’s an amazing experience!

An Evening with Andrey Kurkov in San Francisco!

On By Olga ZilberbourgIn Book panel, EventLeave a comment

I am delighted to have the opportunity to interview one of Ukraine’s best-known authors, and an author whose work I’ve been admiring for so many years, Andrey Kurkov, as a part of Litquake’s year-round series The Epicenter. Andrey Kurkov has been one of the most vocal voices in the West in support of Ukraine. He has traveled widely in Ukraine and the world, collecting stories and communicating the realities of this war in the premier English-language newspapers and magazines. He will be presenting a new book called DIARY OF INVASION (Deep Vellum Press) that collects some of these stories. As horrific as Russia’s war on Ukraine has been, Kurkov’s point of view is illuminating and delivered with kindness and respect for the readers. It’s a necessary book to read right now.

I expect this event to be sold out–don’t wait to reserve your tickets.

My friend, editor Briony Everroad introduced me to Kurkov’s work many years ago. Briony worked with Kurkov when his novel Death and the Penguin was first translated to English by George Bird and published in the UK to great success. It’s a hilarious and profound novel about the aftermath of the USSR’s fall, as seen through the eyes of one Kyiv-based journalist. Following Kurkov’s work over the years, I had a chance to review his novel Grey Bees last year for On the Seawall. I was so pleased to see that this novel and its translator, the amazing poet and man of letters, Boris Dralyuk won the National Book Critics Circle Prize a couple of weeks ago. Huge congratulations to all.

Come! This event is free, with recommended donations. (And please donate if you can!)

April 7, 7 pm

Hotel Emblem, San Francisco

RSVP!

Quieter Than Water, Lower Than Grass: Growing Up Afraid in Russia, my Essay in Narrative Magazine

On By Olga ZilberbourgIn Essay, PublicationLeave a comment

I’m deeply grateful to my friends at Narrative Magazine for publishing a personal essay that was born as a reaction to the news of Russia’s new round of war in Ukraine. As so many people around the world, I watch the developing news with horror and with absolute certainty that Putin must be stopped.

On February 24, 2022, the day Putin ordered Russian forces to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I turned forty-three years old. As Ukrainians began to mount a fierce response to the aggressor, watching the bombs fall from afar, I was astonished and awed by their courage and determination to stop Putin’s army. I was also from-the-bottom-of-my-heart grateful. Like many of my peers who grew up in Russia, I have spent most of my life afraid of violence. I have not had the courage to face my fear but instead tried to outrun it.

I was born in 1979, in Leningrad, to a Jewish family. At about eight years old, when I decided I was old enough to pick up the family’s telephone, I took a call for “Nikolai Dmitrievich.”

https://www.narrativemagazine.com/issues/winter-2022/nonfiction/quieter-water-lower-grass-growing-afraid-russia-olga-zilberbourg

Particular thanks to editors Carol Edgarian and Mimi Kusch and to Jack Schiff for working with me on this publication.

Teffi’s Memories

On By Olga ZilberbourgIn Book reviewLeave a comment

“Teffi, nom de plume of Nadezhda Lokhvitskaya, was born in 1872 into a prominent Russian family. Following in the footsteps of her older sister Maria—poet Mirra Lokhvitskaya—Teffi published poetry and prose from the age of 29. She soon rose to fame by practicing a unique brand of self-deprecating humor and topical social satire. In her 1907 hit one-act play The Woman Question, subtitled A Fantasy, Teffi imagined a world in which a women’s revolution against men achieves a full role reversal. Women come to occupy the prominent political, military, academic, professional, and bureaucratic roles, while men are subjugated to the childcare and household management tasks. Though the play’s ending largely dismisses this scenario and trivializes the feminist cause, through humor, the piece makes the point that bad behavior—infidelity, sexual harassment, excessive drinking, pettiness—is a function of social status rather than of biological sex.

By the time of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, Teffi had nearly a dozen books to her name, and new printings of her story collections sold out instantly. With Lenin at the helm of the government, her fame became a liability. Memories: From Moscow to the Black Sea opens with Teffi being talked into going on tour to Ukraine (then outside of Lenin’s domain)….”

Read the rest of this review in The Common.