Words for War - (Ukrainian Studies) by Oksana Maksymchuk & Max Rosochinsky (Paperback)

About the Book

The poems collected in this volume engage with the events and experiences of war, reflecting on the themes of alienation, loss, dislocation, and disability; as well as justice, heroism, courage, resilience, generosity, and forgiveness. The anthology brings together some of the most compelling poetic voices from different regions of Ukraine.

Book Synopsis

The poems collected in this volume engage with the events and experiences of war, reflecting on the themes of alienation, loss, dislocation, and disability; as well as justice, heroism, courage, resilience, generosity, and forgiveness. The anthology brings together some of the most compelling poetic voices from different regions of Ukraine.

Review Quotes

"The kind of poetry included ... is the antithesis of propaganda; these poetic dialogues are a valuable reminder that there is nothing immutable about Russian-Ukrainian enmity." - Sophie Pinkham, The Times Literary Supplement

"For an overview of how Ukrainian poets responded to the war post-2014, the excellent anthology Words for War... is a must-have." -- Uilleam Blacker, RAAM

"Both Words for War and The White Chalk of Days, each in its own unique way, aim to provide English-speaking readers with the best examples of contemporary Ukrainian literature, while at the same time promoting it as diverse, inclusive, vibrant, and simply too riveting to be unknown or ignored. ... The poems in Words for War, as gathered by Maksymchuk and Rosochinsky, have the potential to permanently inscribe themselves in the global canon of war poetry. While narrower in thematic scope, this gripping anthology serves as a reminder of what it takes not to lose humanity and dignity in a time of war." --Maria G. Rewakowicz, University of Washington, Slavic Review, Vol. 77, No. 4

"The poets here do what poets do best: in responding to a traumatic upheaval, they create a language for events that defy words. Their work is creative in the original sense of the word. The variety of the voices in this volume is its greatest strength. It reflects the fact that war affects everybody, and that Ukraine is and remains a bilingual country. ... The translation into English by a stellar line-up of translators, several of whom were born in Ukraine, makes these poems available to a world-wide readership on linguistically neutral territory. The anthology is beautifully and professionally executed." --Josephine von Zitzewitz, University of Cambridge, Slavic and East European Journal Vol. 62, No. 4

"Poems are frequently described as 'powerful, ' violence as 'unspeakable' or 'senseless.' We all have heard that the pen is mightier than the sword. Most of the time, however, we cannot fathom the meaning of these turns of phrase. In Words for War, they gain weight and significance, coming from the midst of the conflict that has engulfed Ukraine since 2014. For all the darkness and pain of many of these poems, translated from both Russian and Ukrainian, they attest to an optimism that literature can speak back to violence, can find its sense, that language will prevail over the cynical political interests that have engineered this needless bloodshed. Rendered into English by a superb international team of translators, with moving introductory and concluding essays, this volume is the best account of the war in Ukraine I have read." --Kevin M. Platt, Professor of Russian and East European Studies, University of Pennsylvania, and the editor and translator of Hit Parade: The ORBITA Group (2015)

"Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine is an urgent, beautiful and astonishing collection of poems. Read this book to remember, as Kateryna Kalytko writes, that 'Loneliness could have a name, ' and, as Vasyl Holoborodko writes, that there is an invisible history in every series of footsteps. How may we remember our humanity? 'I'm gathering my footsteps / so that strangers don't trample them.'" --Laynie Browne, author of P R A C T I C E

"How much Ukraine has suffered, we cannot count, and so we often forget. A battleground for empires, torn apart from inside and out, as far back as it can remember. War has been waged over and through it and when it tired, hunger, ethnic strife, political repressions, corruption, or stagnation took

About the Author

Oksana Maksymchuk is an author of two award-winning books of poetry in the Ukrainian language, and a recipient of Richmond Lattimore and Joseph Brodsky-Stephen Spender translation prizes. She works on problems of cognition and motivation in Plato's moral psychology. Maksymchuk teaches philosophy at the University of Arkansas. Max Rosochinsky is a poet and translator from Simferopol, Crimea. His poems had been nominated for the PEN International New Voices Award in 2015. With Maksymchuk, he won first place in the 2014 Brodsky-Spender competition. His academic work focuses on twentieth century Russian poetry, especially Osip Mandelshtam and Marina Tsvetaeva.