Vasyl Makhno is a Ukrainian poet, essayist, translator and playwright.
Born in 1964 in the town of Chortkiv, he studied at the pedagogical institute in Ternopil. In 1995, he defended his doctoral dissertation on ‘The Artistic World of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych’ (published in 1999 as Художній світ Богдана Ігоря Антонича – Hudozhnii svit Bogdanan Igorya Antonycha). He has taught at the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and since 2000 has lived in New York.
His many books of poetry include: Книга пагорбів та годин [Knyha pahorbiw ta hodyn – The book of hills and hours] (1996); Плавник риби [Plavnyk ryby – The fish’s fin] (2002); 38 віршів про Нью-Йорк і дещо інше [38 virshiv pro N’iu-Iork i deshcho inshe – 38 poems about New York and some other things] (2004); Cornelia Street Café (2007); and the bilingual edition Thread: Selected New York Poems (2009).
He has written a book of essays, Парк культури та відпочинку імені Гертруди Стайн [Park kultury ta widposchynku imeni Gertrudy Staijn – The Gertrude Stein Memorial Cultural & Recreation Park] (2006), and he has translated Zbigniew Herbert’s and Janusz Szuber’s poetry from Polish into Ukrainian.
As an editor, he has published the anthology Дев’ятдесятники: Антологія нової української поезії [Deviatdesiatnyky: Antolohiia novoi ukrains’koi poezii – The Nineties: Anthology of new Ukrainian poetry] (1998).
Vasyl Makhno’s writings have been translated into eleven languages. Two poetry selections have appeared in Polish translation: Wędrowcy [Wanderers](2003) and 34 wiersze o Nowym Jorku i nie tylko [34 poems about New York and some other things] (2005). His play Coney Island has been translated into English, German, Polish, and Russian.
