Poems emerging from the fury at personal suffering compounded by the suffering in war-torn Ukraine.

Poetry

The Czech-Ukrainian poet Iryna Zahladko records her life-changing experience in a poetic language which alternates between an urgent diary record and a stylized account of disintegration and violence. “Above the collar bone a cover bubbles, alongside it, under my skin, I touch a plastic pipe – an underground tunnel full of people sleeping.” The author engages in the most intimate record of the body’s processes while undergoing treatment for cancer, tirelessly observing and noting down the experience of internal exile in a world where supposedly “nothing is happening”. She thoughtfully works with the language of institutions, the media, marketing, and with different languages in general. Her poetry consciously demands that harsh realities be addressed, though even here there exist simple human desires, even here the taste of good food is important. Life goes on, even though time does not flow in war or illness, as the poet relates with a repeated, urgent refrain. Poetry which is strongly expressive as well as objectively austere, drawing on cross-cultural experiences.

The book won the Literary Critics Award 2024 in the poetry category.

Iryna Zahladko (1986) is a Czech-Ukrainian poet, translator, and a graduate in theoretical physics. She has been living in Prague since 2019 and has published two books in Ukrainian, a collection of poems in Polish, and the poetry collection Tváření (Shaping, 2023) in Czech. She has published her work in numerous journals, edited zines, organized festivals, curated exhibitions, slams and performances, and collaborated with various writers across the Czech and Ukrainian art scene.