Words for War
New Poems from Ukraine
Oksana Maksymchuk editor Max Rosochinsky editor
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Academic Studies Press
Published:30th Oct '17
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- Paperback£16.99(9781618118615)
The armed conflict in the east of Ukraine brought about an emergence of a distinctive trend in contemporary Ukrainian poetry: the poetry of war. Directly and indirectly, the poems collected in this volume engage with the events and experiences of war, reflecting on the themes of alienation, loss, dislocation, and disability; as well as justice, heroism, courage, resilience, generosity, and forgiveness. In addressing these themes, the poems also raise questions about art, politics, citizenship, and moral responsibility. The anthology brings together some of the most compelling poetic voices from different regions of Ukraine. Young and old, female and male, somber and ironic, tragic and playful, filled with extraordinary terror and ordinary human delights, the voices recreate the human sounds of war in its tragic complexity.
Featured in the TLS (June 22 2018)
"Maksymchuk and Rosochinsky note in their introduction that poetry has often been used in the service of political power."
"...Through their collection, they "sought to patch together the pieces of this disintegrating world"."
"The kind of poetry included in these collections is the antithesis of propaganda; these poetic dialogues are a valuable reminder that there is nothing immutable about Russian-Ukrainian enmity."
"The words and images create an impression of a shimmering landscape that keeps shifting and changing. It is these moments that move us most – the moments when things no longer make sense, but are about to start making sense again. Meanings change, old words acquire new connotations, language itself wrings out of the usual course and meanders. In principle, there is nothing strange about language evolving to describe the changing reality. What’s uncanny is how quickly this happens. It’s like watching a blossom burst out of a bud, open and close rapidly a dozen of times, wilt away, and disappear, all in a matter of seconds. War puts language change in fast-forward." - Poetry International Online
“These are poems in which the spirit of creative imagination, free expression, emotional clarity, and ethical courage reigns supreme.” – Stephanie Sandler, Harvard University
ISBN: 9781618116666
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
242 pages