Translated from the Ukrainian by Christine Chraibi
This piece is part of our Winter 2022 print issue, available for purchase here.
Olesya Mamchych was born in Kyiv in 1981. In 2003, she graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, where she studied creative writing. Her first poem appeared in the children’s magazine Sonyashnik in 1992, and her first collection, Perekotybole, in 2004. Her other two collections, The Cover and The Sun on Maternity Leave were both published in 2014. Mamchych has also published her poetry translations from Polish and Lithuanian and 10 books for children. She was the recipient of the Blagovist Award in 2006, the Urba-Crossing Award in 2014, Top Barabuka Award (2020) and Lviv BookForum Best Book Award (2021). She works as an editor and is currently living in Poland.
Christine Eliashevsky Chraibi is a Ukrainian-Canadian currently living in Lviv, Ukraine. Christine grew up and went to school in Toronto, Canada. She received a B.A. degree in Modern Languages and Literature at the University of Toronto and an M.A. degree in Strasbourg, France. Her parents were from Western Ukraine but were forced to flee the USSR and immigrated to Canada. Christine has worked as an English and French teacher and a freelance translato in Canada and Europe. She has travelled widely, and divides her time between Ukraine, France, and Canada. In 2014, she took part in the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, and subsequently joined Euromaidan Press as a translator and editor. She is involved in volunteer work and devotes her time to reporting on Ukraine and the current Russo- Ukrainian war.
