Serhiy Zhadan

Serhiy Zhadan

Serhiy Zhadan presenting his book in Poznań
Born Сергі́й Ві́кторович Жада́н
23 August 1974
Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast
Nationality Ukrainian
Alma mater Kharkiv University
Occupation poet, novelist, translator

Serhiy Viktorovych Zhadan (Ukrainian: Сергі́й Ві́кторович Жада́н; born 23 August 1974) is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, essayist, and translator.

Life and career

Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast. He graduated from Kharkiv University in 1996, then spent three years as a graduate student of philology. He taught Ukrainian and world literature from 2000 to 2004, and thereafter retired from teaching. He lives and works in Kharkiv.

Zhadan has translated poetry from German, English, Belarusian, and Russian, from such poets as Paul Celan and Charles Bukowski. His own works have been translated into German, English, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Russian, Hungarian, Armenian, Swedish and Czech.

In March 2008, the Russian translation of his novel Anarchy in the UKR made the short list of the National Bestseller Prize. It was also a contender for "Book of the Year" at the 2008 Moscow International Book Exhibition.

His novel Anthem of Democratic Youth has been adapted for the stage and is being performed at the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater in Kyiv.

Serhiy Zhadan at "Rock for change" rally in Kharkiv, 2013

In 2013, he participated in Euromaidan demonstrations in Kharkiv.[1][2] In 2014, he was assaulted outside the administration building in Kharkiv.[3]

Music projects

Zhadan collaborated with Kharkiv-based music band Luk. Most of Luk's Ukrainian-language songs included lyrics based on works by Zhadan (in particular the first album Tourist zone is based on Zhadan's play "Merry Christmas, Jesus Christ").

The tribute album Khor monholskykh militsioneriv (Mongol policemen choir) was released in 2008. The songs include lyrics by Zhadan, performed by Kharkiv musicians.

Since 2008, Zhadan has collaborated with another Kharkiv ska-band Sobaky v Kosmosi. They released three albums — Sportyvny Klub Armiyi, Zbroya Proletariatu and Byisya za neyi.

Critical reception

Rostislav Melnikov and Yuriy Tsaplin of the New Literary Review wrote in 2007:

Zhadan's prose is so poetic, his free verse so prosaic. It is difficult to assign a genre to his work: memoir, travelogue, timely or untimely meditation - or a mixture of all these, centered on the themes my generation and our epoch.[4]

Kirill Ankudinov, writing for Vzglyad.ru in June 2008, said:

There is no summarizing the spicy, hot, sweet, vicious improvisations of Serhiy Zhadan - this is verbal jazz. When you read him, you fear for contemporary Russian literature: of those now writing in the Russian language, there is none among them who is so infernally free (and above all, free from "writerly" prose, from the tendency to "produce an impression").[5]

Works

Poetry

Prose

Compilations

Anthologized poetry

Poetry in English translations

Awards

References

  1. ↑ McGrane, Sally (8 March 2014). "The Abuse of Ukraine's Best-Known Poet". The New Yorker. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  2. ↑ "Ukraine activists swap Lenin for Lennon". BBC. 23 December 2013.
  3. ↑ Maksymiuk, Jan; Bigg, Claire (11 March 2014). "Ukraine's Rock Star Poet Who Chose To Fight Back". Radio Free Europe. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. ↑ Melnikov, Rostislav; Tsaplin, Yuriy (2007). "Northeast of the Southwest: The Contemporary Literature of Kharkiv". The New Literary Review, #85.
  5. ↑ Ankudinov, Kirill (5 June 2008). "Adventures in April". Vzglyad.
  6. ↑ Brack, Joëlle (28 November 2014). "Prix Jan Michalski 2014". Payot Libraire. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  7. ↑ "BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year 2014 and Book of the Decade winners named". The FINANCIAL. 13 December 2014.

External links