Ukrainian writers on the world stage: a reflection on ten years (08/29/99)

Ukrainian writers on the world stage: a reflection on ten years

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - As the Harbourfront Reading Series is gearing up for its 20th International Authors Festival, it is noteworthy that 10 years ago the first Ukrainian writer came to read at the festival.

In 1989, Ivan Drach, newly elected leader of Rukh, took part in what is called "the largest, most lavish and well-attended literary event in the world." Judging by what he said to a reporter from The Toronto Star on October 19, 1989, it seems so long ago: "We support Gorbachev. We want independence but not to leave the Soviet Union behind."

In the last 10 years, six Ukrainian writers have read at the festival: Mr. Drach (1989), Ihor Kalynets (1990), Vasyl Holoborodko (1991), Mykola Vorobiov (1992), Oksana Zabuzhko (1996), Yuri Andrukhovych (1998) - in most peoples' opinion, all top writers in Ukraine. They appeared - at least the first five - as a result of the devoted efforts and continual lobbying by Toronto writer Lydia Palij.

Writers from Ukraine were invited to the festival thanks to Ms. Palij's personal acquaintance with the artistic director of the Reading Series, Greg Gatenby. The Reading Series was initiated in 1974 as a weekly reading throughout the year. The first International Festival in 1980 had 18 authors reading over six evenings; the festival now runs 11 days and features from 80 to 100 novelists, poets, playwrights and biographers from around the globe. Over 3,000 writers from 91 countries have read on the stages of Harbourfront among them numerous Nobel laureates (Saul Bellow, William Golding, Josef Brodsky, Czeslaw Milosz and Derek Woolcott), Pulitzer Prize, Booker Prize and Governor-General's Award winners.

It was actually Mr. Gatenby who first approached Ms. Palij, as he had heard of Mr. Drach and asked her to provide some of the poet's translated work. Mr. Drach was first invited in 1988, but he did not get a visa; Mr. Gatenby was ready to give up, but Ms. Palij persuaded him to try one more time and Mr. Drach finally arrived in October 1989.

If a writer does not write in English, then one of the conditions of appearing at the festival is to have a publication available in translation. Drach's "Orchard Lamps," edited by Stanley Kunitz, had already appeared in the United States and was reprinted in Canada.

Which brings us to the second person who has been instrumental in ensuring that Ukrainians appear at the festival: businessman (and poet) George Yemetz. It was Mr. Yemetz who funded the publication of a book by each Ukrainian writer (except the last one) who came to the festival and, when the festival ran into funding problems, stepped in to cover the cost of airfare for the Ukrainians.

The publication "Orchard Lamps" by Mr. Drach, "Crowning the Scarecrow" by Mr. Kalynets (translated by Marco Carynnyk), "Icarus with Butterfly Wings" by Mr. Holoborodko and "Wild Dog Rose Moon" by Mr. Vorobiov (the latter two translated by Myrosia Stefaniuk) were published by Barry Callaghan in his Exile Editions.

Ms. Palij, who found the translators and coordinated the publication of each book, recalled that it was usually a mad scramble to get the book out in time for the festival. Ms. Zabuzhko's book "The Kingdom of Fallen Statues" (edited by Mr. Carynnyk, various translators) was published by Mr. Yemetz's press, Wellspring, and CIUS published Mr. Andrukhovych's "Recreations."

In addition to acquainting the director with Ukrainian literature through available translations (sometimes hard to find) and getting all the information needed on time so that an invitation could be issued (not an easy task), Ms. Palij would serve as translator and tour guide; when the invited writers arrived in Toronto, she organized invitations, made them feel at home, and dragged them to festival events.

Often she did literally "drag" them. I remember once, during a book launch reception for Drach's "Orchard Lamps," organized by publisher Barry Callaghan, seeing Lydia running down the street after Mr. Drach and his wife (both of whom had escaped the party) shouting: "Vy musete tut buty! Tse dlia Vas!" (You have to be here. It's for you!).

One of the aims of the International Authors Festival is to provide the visiting writers with opportunities to fraternize. The organizers try to encourage this by supplying a hospitality suite, providing all meals and planning excursions. But this fraternization was a hard sell to the Ukrainians. None of the first four invitees (Messrs. Drach, Kalynets, Holoborodko or Vorobiov) were at all interested in meeting other writers at the festival. Partly as a result of not knowing English, partly as a result of having endured a very isolated existence - only Mr. Drach had ever been out of Ukraine - they would try to avoid festival events and escape to their rooms or go to see local Ukrainians who were always ready to invite them to their homes.

Occasionally Ms. Palij was forced to make excuses or to apologize on behalf of invitees. For example, she organized an interview with The Toronto Star for Mr. Kalynets, who had come to Toronto with his wife, Iryna. She insisted on seeing "real Indians" and hauled him off to a native reservation several hours' drive north of Toronto, leaving the Star reporter waiting. Both the Kalyntsi came back disappointed, probably having expected to see feather headresses and rain dances on the reservation and not ordinary looking Canadians dressed in jeans.

There was the occasional sticky situation. Mr. Vorobiov liked to "wet his whistle" and once Ms. Palij left him in his hotel room with instructions to stay there until he "felt better". After she had gone, the poet made his way to dinner, which he spent sitting next to Nobel Prize winner William Golding who, Ms. Palij said, was very understanding when she made apologies the following day.

When Mr. Drach came to the festival in 1989, he had just been elected to head Rukh, the Popular Movement of Ukraine, and interest in perestroika was high. In interviewing him, reporters were more interested in his political acitivity than his writing. Politics hung over the visit of Mr. Kalynets as well; he and his wife were in Toronto in October of 1990 during the student hunger strike in Kyiv. Iryna Kalynets, then a Verkhovna Rada national deputy, couldn't sit still. She would complain: "What am I doing here when they are striking in Kyiv?"

Both Messrs. Holoborodko and Vorobiov were far from politics, but they were two of the best poets in Ukraine, according to Ms. Palij. Mr. Holoborodko was born in a village near Donetsk and still worked as a farmer, rarely venturing to Kyiv. He was quiet and reserved. Mr. Vorobiov, who had been born in Cherkasy and now lived in Kyiv, but like Mr. Holoborodko, had never been out of Ukraine, seemed lost and overwhelmed in Toronto.

After Mr. Vorobiov's visit, Mr. Gatenby said he would only issue invitations to writers who spoke English and who were willing to meet with other writers during the festival. That was not such an easy order for Ms. Palij and three years passed before Ms. Zabuzhko was invited to read in 1996. Self-assured, outspoken and controversial (her "Field Studies in Ukrainian Sex" had recently been published and was circulating in samvydav-type photocopied versions in Toronto as the Ukrainian-printed edition was impossible to get), she had already twice been to the United States, where she taught at universities. And she made quite a splash at the festival (once quite literally with red wine during an altercation with her editor).

In the year Ms. Zabuzhko was here, the festival organized several additional readings in authors' original languages, and Ms. Zabuzhko was given an evening to read in Ukrainian. The festival also chose some writers to be interviewed on stage, usually by another writer, and Ms. Zabuzhko was the first Ukrainian writer to take part in a public interview, which was conducted in English. She was interviewed by writer Anne Michaels, who herself was reading at the festival from her newly published novel "Fugitive Pieces" - a book that was to become an international bestseller and prizewinner.

After Ms. Zabuzhko, came Mr. Andrukhovych, whose invitation was promoted by Maksym Tarnawsky of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, and publisher of Mr. Andrukhovych's "Recreations." Mr. Andrukhovych became the first Ukrainian to himself read the English translation of his work on the stage, which he did very well (until then, the English translations had been read by native English speakers, either actors or other writers).

Thus, after a three-year hiatus, a completely different type of Ukrainian writer was coming to the festival. Younger, articulate, English-speaking, self-assured, outgoing and well-traveled - both Ms. Zabuzhko and Mr. Andrukhovych had no problems in fraternizing with writers from other countries. Their command of English made them more visible; they were publicly interviewed and they took part in televised discussions.

Unfortunately, this year's International Authors festival, to be held October 20-30, has no Ukrainian invitee. So far, of the Eastern European countries, Ukraine has done well. With six invitees to date, it is second only to Russia and Poland (each with 10, although this is a bit of a stretch as the lists includes people like Czeslaw Milosz and Josef Brodsky, both of whom who lived in the United States when they came to the festival).

Hopefully, there will be someone who will take over from Ms. Palij to ensure the continued appearance of Ukraine's best writers on the stage of what even The New York Times called "one of the literary centers of the Northern Hemisphere."

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