Галина Крук. Буквар

Галина Крук

Work proposed for translation: 

Буквар
Poetry (2013–2024)
Length: 140 pp.
Copyright: Author: halynakruk@gmail.com

Halyna Kruk (born 1974) is one of the most famous contemporary Ukrainian writers and poets, winner of prestigious literary awards. Born and living in Lviv, she is an active member of the local literary community. She works at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, where she teaches literary studies and medieval studies. Since the beginning of her literary career, she has published about 10 books, some of which are bilingual and were first published with translations. Numerous texts by Kruk have been included in anthologies and almanacs. Her poetry has been very successful among foreign readers, and her works have been translated into more than 30 languages. During the Russian-Ukrainian war, she became a leading Ukrainian poetic voice both in Ukraine and abroad. In 2024, her collection of poems A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails was shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize. 

BookWar is a collection of poems by Halyna Kruk, written between 2013 and 2024. The author selected texts that together construct the recent history of the Russian-Ukrainian war: from pre-war poems that foreshadow the beginning of something terrible to contemporary ones that recreate the realities of air raid sirens and massive missile strikes, now familiar to all Ukrainians. Kruk never invents stories; instead, she takes on the role of archivist of other people’s and her own lives, creating a national narrative of collective memory. The collection contains poems about the everyday and the extraordinary, about the personal and the shared, but always imbued with war. Through these poems, Kruk becomes the voice of a generation. She writes about soldiers and civilians, children and mothers, retelling their stories to the reader as if they were confessions — sincerely, sensitively, and often painfully. This collection is a testimony in which Kruk skilfully plays with words and translates the realities of war into the language of feelings, accessible to any reader.