“[Lutsyshyna] demonstrates a readiness to deconstruct the stereotypes of femininity and motherhood while confronting the traumatic experiences resulting from the crisis of contemporary masculinity (both Ukrainian and Western). ”
Persephone Blues
by Oksana Lutsyshyna
Persephone Blues offers a selection of poems by one of the leading Ukrainian writers of her generation, Oksana Lutsyshyna. In the poems collected here “experience is a means of entombment”. Gender is no longer a measure of strength; neither is youth. Sometimes the dead can see each other again; love goes through its motions, while we remain in the animal kingdom. Inviting and potent, these poems suggest Ovid’s transformations continue unfolding around us with unexpected rapidity. Author of four novels and four volumes of poetry, Lutsyshyna is currently a lecturer in Slavic Literature at the University of Texas at Austin.
Oksana Lutsyshyna
Oksana Lutsyshyna is a Ukrainian writer and poet. She is the author of four books of fiction and four books of poetry, all published in Ukraine. She is currently working as Lecturer in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches Ukrainian language and literature, as well as other Eastern European literatures. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Georgia. She also translates Ukrainian poetry into English in collaboration with the New York-based poet and writer Olena Jennings.
