moderator of wine and poetry readings and book presentations

Ukraine/the Great Britain

“I was born in Saratov on Volga in 1948, grew up in Chernivtsi. My father was a journalist, so writing for me was an everyday practice. If my farther had been a carpenter I would have enjoyed working with wood, its structure, its smell and its warmth. My favorite language “wood” is poetry. Even working with radio sounds, a sort of “air carving” for me, I am still a poet saying nothing of my being a prosaic and essay writer. Today, looking back, it’s better understood which materials I have been working with all my life: with air, soil, moisture and, of course, language. Everything else is written in books”.

Ukraine

Juri Andrukhovych was born 03.13.1960 in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk). He graduated from the editorial department of the Ukrainian Polygraphic Institute in Lviv (1982) and literature courses at Higher Literary Institute in Moscow (1991).

Author of poetry collections “Nebo i Ploshi” (1985), “Seredmistya” (1989), “Ekzotychni Ptahy i Roslyny” (1991), “Ekzotychni Ptahy i Roslyny” with the addition of ” India” (1997, 2002) and “Pisni Dlya Mertvogo Pivnya” (2004).

In the center of his prose works there are novels “Recreation” (1992), “Moskoviada” (1993), “Perversiya” (1996), “Dvanadtzyat Obruchiv” (2003) and “Zamist Romanu”, “Tayemnytsya”(2007).

Andrukhovych’s essays were published in two collections – “Dezoriyentatsiya Na Mistsevosti” (1999) and “Dyavol Hovayetsya V Syri” (2006).

In 2011 the author published “Lexicon intimate cities”. This is the first prose book project, which took place in the International Poetry Festival MERIDIAN CZERNOWITZ.

Andrukhovych’s works were translated and published in Poland, Germany, Canada, Hungary, Finland, Russia, Serbia, USA, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic. Selected publications – in Sweden, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Belarus, Lithuania, of Denmark.

Among a number of his literary awards:

Herder Prize (Alfred Toepfer Foundation, Hamburg, Germany, 2000);

Special Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize (Osnabrück, Germany, 2005);

Leiptzig Book Prize for European Understanding (2006);

Central European Literature Award “Angelus” (Wroclaw, Poland, 2006).

moderator of poetry readings

Ukraine

Mark Belorusets was born in 1943. Since 1978 has published translated works of Paul Celan, Robert Musil, Tomas Berngard, Gunter Eih, Georg Trakl, Gottfried Benn, Alexander Kluge, Hertha Kraftner, Kerstin Hensel, Antje Shtrubel, Herta Muller.

Collections:

“Zolotoye Secheniye. Austrian poetry XIX – XX centuries in russian translation”, Raduga, Moscow, 1988 (Paul Celan);

“Lira Semi Gorodov. Poems”, Moscow, 1992 (Elisabeth Aksman, Bernd Kolf);

К.G. Jung “Vospominaniya, sny, razmyshleniya”, AirLand, Kyiv, 1994 (Septem Sermones ad Mortuos);

“Georg Trakl. Poems. Prose. Letters”, Symposium, Saint-Petersburg, 2000;

“Paul Celan. Materialy, issledovaniya, vospominaniya”, Gesharim, Moscow-Jerusalem, 2004 (Article “Celan and Mandelshtam. Dialogs”).

Separate books:

Paul Celan “Stihotvoreniya”, Gamayun, Kyiv (1998);

Julian Shutting “Popytka chteniya. Stihotvoreniya” Gamayun, Kyiv (2000);

Manes Sperber “Naprasnoye predosterezheniye”, Gamayun, Кyiv (2002);

Paul Celan “Poems. Prose. Latters”, Ad marginem, Мoscow (together with Tetiana Baskakova, 2008).

Rewards:

Reward of Austrian Republic for translators (1998);

Reward of Andriy Bilyy, Saint Petersburg (2008);

Ministry of Education, Culture and Austrian Republic Culture reward for translations (2010).

Today Mark Belorusets lives and works in Kyiv.

Photo by Iryna Vikyrchak

moderator of poetry readings

Petro Ryhlo is a specialist in literature, a translator. He is the Doctor of Philological Science, The professor at the Department of Foreign Literature and Theory of Literature at Chernivtsi National University. He is a member of the Association of the Ukrainian Writers. He is the author of the works in German and Austrian literature, of the German literature in Bukovina, of the numerous translations (P. Celan, Y. Zoyfer, I. von Rezzori, J. Burya, R. Auslander, M. Shperber, K. Lybomirski, I. Drozdovski, R. Flinker, etc.). He is the author of the anthology of German Literature of Bukovina.

President of the Festival

Ukraine

E-mail: pomer@meridiancz.com

Several years ago I was a successful Bukovynian entrepreneur involved in providing ‘climate control’: this is the generic, business term for air conditioners, exhaust pipes and other equipment that regulates indoor temperature. As a result of the global economic crisis, I lost all my clients and nearly went bankrupt. The tortuous hours spent free of work and the pursuit of money allowed me to think seriously about my own life. I began to realize I was a man who had grown up with no sense of place or history. I had never thought about where I was born and live: this town called Chernivtsi. My grandparents are buried here, my son was born here, I am tied to Chernivtsi through the knots of birth and death. But what did I know about it?

I never used to care much for poetry. But when I found out that Chernivtsi has been writing poetry in a multitude of languages for two hundred years I began to look anew at the books and writers it has produced, both past and present. Maybe it was my blood calling: my great-grandfather was a writer from Odessa, a historian of Odessan synagogues. My grandfather was a journalist in Chernivtsi at the “Soviet Bukovyna” newspaper. My uncle started writing poetry in Chernivtsi and remains a Chernivtsi poet forever, no matter where he is living: in London, Munich or Prague. Suddenly I felt as if was seeing my home town for the first time: as a living architecture of words and texts. I made a decision: to make my city speak through poems again – no matter in what language. Maybe this sounds overly romantic, but I hope the absurdity of my story, that of a yuppie victim of the economic crisis who has suddenly discovered the meaning of poetry, will humanize the romanticism. I am happy to be once again engaged in providing “climate”, though now of a completely different kind, one not directly related to the construction business. It is the climate of poetry, the climate of language, it is the interior of Chernivtsi, a climate that made and still makes my town one of the cultural capitals of Europe.

Ukraine

Sergiy Zhadan (23.08.1974) – a poet, a prosaic, an essayist and a translator.

The author of poetic collections: “Tsytatnyk” (1995, 2005), “General Yuda” (1995), “Pepsi” (1998), “the very very best poems, psychedelic stories of fighting and other bullshit” (selected poems 1992 – 2000) (2000), “Balady pro Viynu i Vidbudovu” (2001), “Istoriya Kultury Pochatku Stolittya” (2003), “Maradona” (2007), “Ephiopia” (2009), “Lily Marlen” (2009), and also books: “Big Mac” (2003), “Depeche Mode” (2004), “Anarchy in the UKR” (2005) and “Gimn Demokratychnoyi Molodi” (2006).

In 2006 a book of selected works “Capital” was published.

Translations:

“Istoriya Kultury” – Russia (2003), Poland (2005), Germany (2005);

“Big Mac” – Poland (2005);

“Depeche Mode” – Russia (2005), Poland (2006), Belorussia (2006), Germany (2007), Lithuania (2008), Italy (2009);

“Anarchy in the UKR” – Poland (2007), Germany (2007), Russia (2008);

“Gimn Demokratuchnoyi Molodi” Poland (2008);

“Kordon”, Russia (together with Igor Sid and Andriy Polyakov, 2009).

Some texts were translated into German, English, Polish, Hungarian, Slovakian, Russian, Belorussian, Lithuanian, Croatian, Serbian and Armenian languages.

The author of anthology of Nurnberg poetry: “Dva Mista” (Kharkiv, 1999).

The compiler and translator of anthology of Viennese poetry “Dva Mista” (Kharkiv, 1999).

The author of anthology of new Kharkiv literature: “Goteli Kharkova” (Kharkiv, 2008).

Translation from German, Belorussian, Polish and Russian.

Ukraine

Sergiy Osachuk was born in 1972 in Chernivtsi. Graduated from the Department of History of Chernivtsi National University (1994). During 1995-1996 worked on the probation at the Universities of Vienna and Munich. He is the Candidate of Historical science, the senior research worker at the “Bukovina Studies Centre” attached to the Chernivtsi City Council. He looks at Chernivtsi through the subjective regard of the camera lens. He is the author of the first photographic album “Chernivtsi. The Jubilee Photographic Album”.

He was born in Tashkent, in 1946, graduated from Cernivtsi National University.

In the early 70s he cooperated with Jewish and general democratic secret movement in the USSR. In spring 1972 he was turned out from the komsomol, because of his support of the right to reparation.

In 1978 he entered Ukrainian Helsinki Group. The same year he was arrested and they announced him a sentence – three years of imprisonment in the colony with a strict regime.

In 1984 he was arrested again for three years in the colony with a strict regime.

In 1987 he refused the amnesty because he didn’t want to sign the obligation about the refusal of the political work.

In 1988 he established the first Jewish organization in Chernivtsy. In 1989 he participated in the creating of Vaad ( The Confederation of Jewish organizations and Communities) in the USSR and he became the adviser.

He is a member of the European Council of the Jewish Communities, of the European and Universal Jewish congresses, of the Universal Zionist’s organization.

Since 1991 – the head of the Association of the Jewish organizations and communities in Ukraine (Vaad Ukraine), exutive Vice- President of Congress of the National Communities in Ukraine and Jewish Confederation in Ukraine.

In 2002 he was elected as the Head of the General Council in the constituent meetings of Euro-Asian Jewish congress in Moscow (Russia).