O projekte

Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award

The Visegrad Eastern Partnership Award project (VEaPLA) presents authors of poetry, fiction and non-fiction literary works from countries of the Eastern Partnership (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia and Ukraine to readers from Central Europe. 

The ambition of the project is to create a platform for a cooperation among intellectuals working in the field of literature of the post-Soviet area and in the V4 countries, to support important cultural personalities and ideals of freedom of literary creation. 
Within the project, a database of authors, literary reviews, publishing houses and literary awards, festivals, competitions and events of the literary life scene in the countries of the Eastern Partnership is being created. 

The database is open to public, contributions and suggestions can be sent via this blog. 
                                 

VEaPLA Book of the Year 2016

Sofia Adruchovyč: Felix Austria (2014)

VEaPLA Book of the Year 2015
Akram Ajlisli: Kamenné sny (2012, 96 pp.)
 

VEaPLA Book of the Year 2014

Ihar Babkou: Khvilinka (Minsk, Logvinau, 2013, 232 pp, ISBN 978-985-562-097-7 ).

Do kina Lumière prichádza filmová klasika z Ukrajiny

Od 15. do 18. júna môžete nahliadnuť do ukrajinskej filmovej pokladnice. Unikátna prierezová prehliadka najvýznamnejších klasických filmov z dejín ukrajinskej kinematografie je súčasťou širšej pocty Ukrajine a jej filmovej kultúre. Uvedenie výberu reštaurovaných a digitalizovaných filmov, zahŕňa avantgardné diela 20. a 30. rokov dvadsiateho storočia (Zem – r. O. Dovženko, Symfónia Donbasu – r. D. Vertov), romantickú drámu z budúcnosti, z čias beztriednej spoločnosti (Strohý mládenec– r. A. Room), slávny vojnový film podľa scenára Vandy Vasilevskej (Dúha – r. M. Donskoj), ale i ďalšie majstrovské diela nasledujúcich dekád. Výber je zameraný na filmy u nás málo alebo vôbec neuvedené: od krátkeho filmu Sergeja Paradžanova (Kyjevské fresky), cez ranné opusy Jurija Ilienka (Prameň pre smädných), Kiry Muratovovej (Dlhé lúčenia) až po populárnu komédiu z 80. rokov od Romana Balajana (Lety v sne a v skutočnosti).

Viac info tu: http://www.aic.sk/aic/sk/doma/archiv/filmova-klasika-z-ukrajiny.html

Festival BRaK

http://brakfestival.sk/program_2015/

30. 5. 2015

17.00 S dielom svetoznámeho ukrajinského básnika, prozaika a esejistu, zakladateľa kultovej literárnej skupiny Bu – Ba – Bu (zo slov burleska – fraška – klauniáda), má slovenský čitateľ možnosť stretnúť sa prostredníctvom dvoch do slovenčiny preložených diel: novelyRekreácie, vykresľujúcej obraz Ukrajiny v poslednej fáze Sovietskej éry a románu Moskoviáda, absurdno – fantazijného záznamu jedného (ne)obyčajného dňa v živote ukrajinského spisovateľa v metropole Ruska. Lexikón intímnych miest je spisovateľov záznam z pobytov v desiatkach ďalších európskych a svetových metropol. Vychádza z neho aj spoločný hudobný projekt so skupinou Karbido Atlas Estremo, ktorý budeme počuť aj na samostatnom koncerte. Rozhovor s Jurijom Andruchovyčom vedie Patrik Oriešek.

21.00 Kinga Tóth je poetka, hudobníčka a performerka žijúca v Budapešti. Vo svojej tvorbe balansuje na pomedzí zvukovej a vizuálnej poézie a hudobnej performance. Medzi jej najnovšie multimediálne počiny patrí projekt All Machine, s ktorým vystúpi aj na BRaK – u. Pražská skupina Skrytý půvab byrokracie pracuje vo svojej tvorbe s odkazom českého hudobného undergroundu. Medzi nekonvenčné texty, ktoré zhudobnila, patrí napríklad Europeana Patrika Ouředníka, či najnovšie pitevná správa Reinharda Heydricha. Karbido je poľská experimentálna hudobná skupina z Vroclavi. Medi jej najznámejšie projekty patrí elektroakustický projekt Stôl, s ktorým precestovala celý svet. S ukrajinským spisovateľom Jurijom Andruchovyčom skupina spolupracuje od roku 2006. Doteraz spolu nahrali tri albumy: Samogon (2006),Cynamon (2009) a Absynt (2012). Na koncerte v Bratislave predstavia svoj najnovší spoločný projekt Atlas Estremo. Vstupné: 7 / 9 €. 

Valiantsin Akudovich

Valiantsin Akudovich (1950), Belarusian: Валянцін Акудовіч

Belarusian writer, philosopher and literary critic.

After having worked in a number of institutions that were far from literature, Akudovich entered the literary and philosophical arena in the 1990’s. His literary works usually present a combination of philosophical reflections and fiction. As a writer and a philosopher he is deeply concerned by the way a human being exists in the world and communicates with it. Akudovich is the author of such books as “I Don’t Exist. Reflections Between Ruins of Humanity” (1998), “To Destroy Paris” (2004), “Dialogues with God” (2006), “Code of Absence. Basics of Belarusian mentality”. Several works by Akudovich were published in the USA, Poland, Russia, Czech Republic and other countries. His book “Dialogues with God” was translated into Polish (2008).

In 2012, his latest book called “Book about Nothing” was published. As the author described it, it is the culmination of his reflections started in the essay “I Don’t Exist”, where he contemplated about The Nothing and The Absent. In the novel, he addresses or even controverts all the previous philosophical tradition, from Parmenides to Heidegger and Sartre.

Akudovich received several awards, ranging from military medals to awards from the Belarusian PEN-Center and the Hlinyany Vyales award.

Aram Pachyan

Aram Pachyan (1983), Arm. Արամ Պաչյան, Rus. Aрам Пачян

Fiction and non-fiction writer

source: http://www.lit-across-frontiers.org/profiles/aram-pachyan/  

He was first published in 2007 in the literary newspaper "Grakan Tert". Later his stories were periodically published in different local literary periodicals including "Grakan Tert", "Gretert", "Eghitsi Luys", "Narcis" literary magazine. Currently he is a journalist and columnist at "Hraparak" newspaper, as well as the host of a radio program and author of the literary series.

His first collection of short stories "Robinson" (Ռոբինզոն և 13 պատմվածք) was published in 2011. The first novel by the author "Goodbye,Bird" (Ցտեսություն, ծիտ) was published in 2012.

His short stories are available also online in English (http://www.writershub.co.uk/fiction-piece.php?pc=1730, http://www.lit-across-frontiers.org/transcript/toronto/, http://granish.com/journey-by-bicycle/ )

Ihar Babkou

Out of 7 books published by Ihar Babkou three won particular attention of the reading public from Belarus and from beyond. His first book of poetry “Solus Rex” received Hliniany Viales (a Belarusian Literary Award set by the Society of Free Literature Men ) back in 1994. His novel “Adam Klakotski and his Shadows” (2002) has been translated into Polish and was short-listed for Angelus Literary Award in 2009. In 2012 Ihar received Zalaty Apostraf Award (set by literary journal “Dzejaslou”) for the best prose publication over 2011. His second novel “Kvilinka” became the laureate of Gedroyc Literary Award this year. The site of the Award offers a review of the book as well abstracts from it, together with the recent information on the author.
Another relevant review of the novel “Khvilinka” (compared with Шклатара, 2013, a novel by Artur Klinau) by philosopher Maksim Zhbankou can be found here (In Belarusian).
Ihar Babkou’s text about Belarusian literature today in Hungarian Review (in English) is available here.
Reflections upon his recent five books by Jan Maksymiuk (In Belarusian).
Audio and video records of the author (Ihar Babkou reciting poetry).
His texts have been translated into Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, German, English, and Hungarian. In 2008 two of his books were published in Polish – “Adam Klakocki” and “Krolewstwo Bialorus/ Kingdom of Belarus”

Yuri Vynnychuk

In 2004 Yuri Vynnychuk (Юрій Винничук, 1952) took up the post of the vice-president of the Ukrainian Writers’ Union. He was the first one to receive the BBC's literary award for the best Ukrainian book. The award was given in 2005 for the novel "Springtime Games in Autumn Gardens" (Весняні ігри в осінніх садах). In 2012, he received the order "the Golden writer of Ukraine" as well as the BBC's "Best Book of the Year" award for his novel "The Tango of Death" (Танґо смерті).

Volodymyr Dibrova

Volodymyr Dibrova (Володи́мир Дібро́ва, 1951) received the BBC’s "Book of the Year" award for his novel "Andrew's Descent" (Андріївський узвіз). His novel reminds us that the death is not the worst thing that could happen to us. What is tragic is our contemporary’s separation from Christian and folklore traditions. His tragedy is the family without love and friendship without trust as well as the fact that understanding of these values comes only at the end of life.

Bogdan Zholdak

Bogdan Zholdak (Богда́н Жолда́к, 1948) is a writer, playwright and screenplay writer.  Critics describe the genre of his works as urban folk miniatures where the narrator is the so-called "homo sovieticus". The language of his works is highly aphoristic. The writer has succeeded in his linguistic experiments with using surzhik. This linguistic hybrid turned out to be a decreasing factor for official language and at the same time a certain discovery for postmodernism. His most famous books include "Like a Dog Under a Tank” (Як собака під танк, 1994), “Anticlimax” (Антиклімакс, 2001) and “The Hot Arctic” (Гаряча Арктика, 2010).

Eugene Pashkovsky

Eugene Pashkovsky (Євген Пашковський,1962) is considered "the most peculiar contemporary innovator in Ukrainian prosaic tradition". In 2001 his novel "Everyday Baton" (Щоденний жезл) received the T. Shenchenko award. A famous Ukrainian writer Pavlo Zagrebelny (1924-2009) compares E. Pashkovsky to a volcano and claims that "no writer has ever written this way and no writer would be able to write like this in the nearest one hundred years... he is the Hell and the Purgatory of Ukraine’s consciousness". His novels depict recent events and through a fluent stream of words (novel as a sentence), thoughts and retrospectives he manages to uncover severe reality of human inability to communicate and to understand the omnipresent cruelty.

Eugenia Kononenko

Eugenia Kononenko (Євгенія Кононенко, 1959)
Her works are often described as three-in-one – detective stories, socio-psychological novels and essays. However, her most recent novel "A Russian Story" (Російський сюжет, 2012) is thematically, poetically and stylistically way beyond this definition. This is a talented post-modern text rich in its allusions (mainly to "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin) and interesting historical and cultural connotations. While showing spiritual and axiological transformations of Kiev-born Eugene who speaks Russian and leans towards Russian culture, the novel in a lighter manner presents one of the most difficult existential and spiritual questions. This is the question of the way Ukrainian identity has been developing, the question of critical and realistic self-reflection of a Ukrainian as a part of not only Slavonic, but also European civilization.

Taras Prokhasko

Taras Prokhasko ukr. Тарас Богданович Прохасько
Ukrainian novelist, essayist and journalist. Like another author, Yuri Andrukhovych, a major representative of the ‘Stanislau phenomenon’. Prokhasko's books have been translated into English, German, Polish, Belarusian and Russian.
Educated in the field of biology, Prokhasko's prose is said to contain the features of "the plant philosophy" due to its dense and meditative character. Worked as a journalist for "Express", "Postup", "Telekrytyka" and "Halytskyi korespondent" newspapers. Between 1992 and 1994 editor of the avant-guarde literary journal "Chetver". Since 1992 has lived in Ivano-Frankivsk. Prokhasko has won many awards: 1997 – Smoloskyp prize, 2006 – first prize awardedby "Korespondent" journalfor his book: З цього можна було б зробити кілька оповідань (One Could Make Several Stories from This), 2007 – third prize awarded by "Korespondent" journalfor his book Порт Франківськ (Port Frankivsk), 2007 – Joseph Conrad prize from the Polish Institute in Kyiv, 2013 – BBC Book of the Year for Хто зробить сніг (Who will make the snow). Each book written by Taras Prokhasko is unique. Bibliography: Інші дні Анни –К.: Смолоскип, 1998, FM Галичина – Івано-Франківськ: Лілея-НВ, 2001; 2004; НепрОсті – Івано-Франківськ: Лілея-НВ, 2002; Лексикон таємних знань – Львів: Кальварія, 2003; З цього можна зробити кілька оповідань – Івано-Франківськ: Лілея-НВ, 2005; Порт Франківськ: вибр. фейлетони  – Івано-Франківськ : Лілея-НВ, 2006; Ukraina (Krakow: Nemrod, 2006), спільно із Сергієм Жаданом; Galizien-Bukowina-Express (Wien: Turia+Kant, 2007 спільно з Юрком Прохаськом і Маґдалєною Блащук); БотакЄ – Івано-Франківськ: Лілея-НВ, 2010; Тарас Прохасько, Мар'яна Прохасько Хто зробить сніг – Львів: Видавництво Старого Лева, Серія: Казки для малят, 2013.

Uladzimir Niakliaeu

Uladzimir Niakliaeu (1946), Belarusian: Уладзімір Някляеў.

Poet, prose writer, politician. Holder of several state awards and literary awards. (1)

His poems are socially engaged to a large extent, but they do not lack lyrism and irony. In the recent years, he has released collections of poems: "Kon" (Кон,2010) and "Letters to Freedom" (Лісты да волі, 2011). The latter was written after Niakliaeu had spent over a month in jail after the presidential elections in 2010, in which he participated as one of the candidates.

At the same time, Niakliaeu is the author of two novels. A "Romance", as he himself called it, "Party Musician" (Лабух, 2003) is a story about a representant of the "creative class", the character that finds himself in a situation of choosing new life paths. The novel is characterized by a significant role of eroticism and is at the same time particularly politicized. The novel "Plain and Sirup Soda Machine" (Аўтамат з газіроўкай з сіропам і без, 2012) is an autobiographical work about Minsk in the 1960’s, life of the then teenagers and processes of self-identification formation in the period of the Khrushchev’s Thaw. For this novel, the author received the most important alternative literary prize in Belarus – Giedroyc Prize. Niakliaeu has also written several song lyrics.