ABOUT THIS PROJECT

The White Chalk of Days: The Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series Anthology is compiled and edited by Mark Andryczyk. It is a publication by Academic Studies Press with support from the Harriman Institute, Columbia University. It was published in hardback in December 2017 and paperback in November 2018.

The project received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the project “Contemporary Ukrainian Literature in English Translation”. The applying non-profit was Borderlines Foundation for Academic Studies. See the NEH's full press release here: http://www.neh.gov/news/press-release/2016-08-09

The “Contemporary Ukrainian Literature in English Translation” project consists of an unprecedented two-volume collection of post-Soviet Ukrainian literature in English translation.

The first volume, The White Chalk of Days: The Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series Anthology compiled and edited by Mark Andryczyk showcases a finely curated selection of Ukrainian poetry, fiction, and essays, which were originally selected to be part of the Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series sponsored by the Harriman Institute (Columbia University) and the Kennan Institute (the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars). These works are products of the freedom unleashed by the Soviet Union’s disintegration. At the same time, many of these texts explore Ukraine’s post-colonial condition and the Soviet shadow’s continuing impact on efforts to define the Ukrainian identity in the twenty-first century.

The second volume Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine edited by Oksana Maksymchuk & Max Rosochinsky brings together for the first time in any language a collection of Ukrainian poetry about the current war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. These poems explore the war from a variety of perspectives and voices—from the front, the home, the hospital; from women and men; from Russian and Ukrainian speakers. Artwork helps contextualize the poems and helps to represent one of the first literary mosaics of the current Ukraine-Russia war.

Both volumes feature scholarly introductions and annotations, aimed at enriching the reading experience for a non-specialist audience. Online versions of the editions are made free to the public, while hardcover and paperback print versions are published by Academic Studies Press.

Both volumes are published under the Academic Studies Press series “Ukrainian Studies” curated by Series Editor Vitaly Chernetsky (University of Kansas). For more information on the series, please visit https://www.academicstudiespress.com/ukrainianstudies.