A collection of Ukrainian women’s poetry, War-Torn Voices, has been published in the UK. The poems were written during Russia’s full-scale invasion, according to the website of publisher Linen Press.
The collection brings together 50 poems by 12 Ukrainian women poets. According to the publisher, the works give form to grief, longing, anger, tenderness and an unwavering will to live. Some were written far from the battlefield but are permeated by its presence. They explore separation, uncertainty, loss, love and resistance. Others were written directly on the frontline, offering a unique and deeply personal perspective on the war.
“These voices come together as a powerful chorus resisting the erasure of memory, preserving an important part of Ukrainian literary culture at a critical moment in the history of Ukraine, Europe and the world,” the publisher says.
According to The Guardian cultural critic Charlotte Higgins, the collection brings together some of Ukraine’s most urgent and compelling voices, including poems by women serving in the military, works written far from the frontline and poetry that bears witness both to lives destroyed by war and to the determination to carry on living.
“Ukrainian poetry, paradoxically, is flourishing amid violence and attempts at destruction,” Higgins said.
British poet Ruth Padel described the book as authoritative in artistic terms while also “heartbreaking”.
“Among the collections I know, there is no other featuring poems by women who have taken part in combat,” Padel added.
The contributors are Yaryna Chornohuz, Olena Herasymiuk, Iya Kiva, Kateryna Mikhalitsyna, Yuliia Musakovska, Yuliia “Taira” Paievska, Olena Pavlova, Svitlana Povaliaieva, Oksana Stomina, Iryna Tsilyk, Eva Tur and Yelyzaveta Zharikova.
The book is priced at £8.50 on the Linen Press website.