White Chalk of Days

Since 2007 Mark Andryczyk has been teaching Ukrainian literature at Columbia University and administering the Ukrainian Studies Program at its Harriman Institute. He is author of the monograph "The Intellectual as Hero in 1990s Ukrainian Fiction" (University of Toronto Press, 2012) - Ukrainian edition (Piramida, 2014) - and a translator of Ukrainian literature into English.

“The White Chalk of Days comes out at a time of acute urgency for discovery of Ukraine’s rich culture – and it answers this challenge by presenting contemporary Ukrainian literature in its diverse, changing, and becoming nature. The anthology’s editor, Marko Andryczyk, accomplished a difficult yet exciting task: not to present a transparent hierarchy of a literature deserving of our attention, or to attempt a rendering of a canon, but instead to offer a glimpse into a literature where established authors (such as Oleh Lysheha, Serhiy Zhadan, Yuri Andrukhovych) participate in a conversation with emerging voices (such as Luba Yakimchuk, Sophia Andrukhovych, Marjana Savka, Andriy Bondar and others). For both the curious reader and the interested scholar, this anthology presents the unique opportunity of observing the literary momentum in its making and of enjoying a radical and exciting variety of genres, thematic approaches, and political and aesthetic positions.”

• Acknowledgments The Kennan Institute/Harriman Institute Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series Introduction A Note On Transliteration ANDREY KURKOV From Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv HRYTSKO CHUBAI The Woman and ever so slowly looms . . . The Corridor with Eye-Sized Doors When your lips are but a half a breath away . . . From Maria Light and Confession OLEH LYSHEHA Song 55 MARJANA SAVKA Books We’ve Never Read From A Short History of Dance Easter Jazz For Yann Tiersen Boston, April 2007 Baghdad Night In This City Who, Marlene, Who? Some woman . . . Organs of Sense My beloved sun . . . VIKTOR NEBORAK From Genesis of the Flying Head Monologue from a Canine Pretext A Drum-Tympanum (a sonnet uttered by the Flying Head) She (rap performance by the Kids of the Queenie) Part 3 An Itty Bitty Ditty ‘bout Mr. Bazio (sung by Viktor Morozov) Fish Supper Green sounds echo . . . The Writer The Poet ANDRIY BONDAR Genes Slavic Gods The Men of My Country Just Don’t Push Me Away Fantasy Robbie Williams St. Nick No. 628 The Roman Alphabet Jogging YURI ANDRUKHOVYCH The Star Absinthe: Notes on a Bitter Anniversary TARAS PROKHASKO 1 Selections from FM Galicia 22.11 24.11 30.11 04.12 07.12 09.12 15.12 16.12 23.12 15.01 24.01 25.01 27.01 10.02 SERHIY ZHADAN Chinese Cooking Hotel Business Children’s Train The Inner Color of Eyes Alcohol Contraband Paprika . . . not to wake her up . . . The Lord Sympathizes with Outsiders The Smallest Girl in Chinatown Owner of the Best Gay Bar The Percentage of Suicides among Clowns IVAN MALKOVYCH Stand up and look . . . bird’s elegy happiness . . . futile people The Village Teacher’s Lesson Nothing is right here, you see: . . . An Evening with Great-Grandma The black parachute of anxiety grows . . . There is much—I know—sadness . . . The Man The Music That Walked Away At Home I gaze at my mountains . . . Tonight . . . Circle an evening (goose) pastoral A Message for T. VASYL GABOR The High Water A Story About One Dollar Five Short Stories for Natalie—The Fifth Story—The Last One—The Lover YURI VYNNYCHUK The Flowerbed in the Kilim Pea Soup From Spring Games in Summer Gardens Prologue The Pilgrim’s Dance, Part One Malva Landa, Part One Pears à la Crêpe OLEKSANDR BOICHENKO Out of Great Love The Lunch of a Man of Letters In a State of Siege SOPHIA ANDRUKHOVYCH An Out-of-tune-Piano, an Accordion LYUBA YAKIMCHUK Apricots of the Donbas The Face of Coal The Slag Piles of Breasts Apricots in Hard Hats My Grandmother’s Fairy Tale The Book of Angels the eye of the slag heap decomposition eyebrows I have a crisis for you false friends and beloved such people are called naked marsala About The Editor