MARJANA SAVKA

MARJANA SAVKA is a writer, publisher, community activist, and chief editor and co- founder of Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva (Old Lion Publishing House). Born in the village of Kopychyntsi, Ternopil oblast, she currently lives and works in Lviv. Savka is author of the poetry collections Oholeni rusla (Naked River Beds, 1995), Hirka mandrahora (Bitter Mandragora, 2002), Kokhannia i viina (Love and War, 2002; together with Marianna Kiianovska), Kvity tsmynu (Helychrysum Flowers, 2006), Boston-dzhaz (Boston- Jazz, 2008), Tin ryby (The Fish’s Shadow, 2010), Pora plodiv i kvitiv (The Time of Fruits and Flowers, 2013), and the monograph Ukraïnska emihratsiina presa u Chekhoslovatskii Respublitsi (20-30-ti rr. XX st.) (The Ukrainian Emigre Press in the Czechoslovak Republic [1920s-1930s]). She has also written several children’s books, including Chy ie v babuïna babusia? (Does the Baboon Have a Grandma?), Lapy i khvosty (Paws and Tails), Korova kolorova (The Colorful Cow), Kazka pro Staroho Leva (The Tale of the Old Lion), Bosonizhky dlia stonizhky (The Centipede’s Sandals) and Tykhi virshyky na zymu (Quiet Little Winter Poems).

Savka’s poems have appeared in several anthologies. She has received the Smoloskyp (1998) and International Vasyl Stus (2003) awards. Savka was also a participant in the international literature program at the William Joiner Center (Boston, 2007). She has twice been listed as one of the “100 Most Influential Women in Ukraine” by Focus magazine. Her poetry has been translated into English, including the publication Eight Notes from the Blue Angel (2007), as well as into Polish, Belarusian, Lithuanian, German and Portuguese.

Marjana Savka’s events in the Contemporary Ukrainian Literature Series, entitled Don’t Take It Literally!, took place in October 2008.