Interview with a writer (me) | Part 2

Interview with a writer (me) | Part 1

Hi friends! Let's continue.

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In your opinion, what should be on mind first of all when working on fairy tales?

You need to remember about Google – check yourself, whether such a name of a fairy tale or an identical main character does not already exist. I really don't want to unknowingly copy someone's idea, so I carefully check everything written. Of course, there are many similar plots in literature, and certain repetitions cannot be avoided. But, I believe, one should do everything possible to differ at least from Ukrainian colleagues in writing style.
Also, you should not write poorly: verbal rhymes, russianisms, jumps from one verse size to another will definitely not create a sense of text harmony in children.

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You are also the author of the poetry collection named "Wobbler". Please tell us how long it took you to create this book? Why?

"Wobbler" is a collection written by another person, who has been gone for a long time. That collection is a kind of reflection on the long abusive relationship in which I was. Does it have artistic value? Apparently, it has some, because most of the poems from "Wobbler" were included in the selection that received the IV "Smoloskyp" prize in 2015.
Now I can already admit without any unnecessary secrecy that I published "Wobbler" mainly for the sake of my creative resume: to have some printed book in my portfolio and not to seem unserious in the eyes of publishers of children's literature. Although the process of creating a self-published book was fantastic: I myself negotiated with the illustrator about the purchase of illustrations, found a layout designer, a printing company...
Poet Ostap Mykytyuk agreed to be the editor of the collection. I remember that he offered to take comments about the book from Dmytro Lazutkin and Andriy Liubka — to place them on the back cover. At that stage, I was sure that they would either refuse or criticize the texts, but the reviews turned out to be cool: "a strong cocktail", "provoking with misanthropy, brutality, frankness", "an impudent poetess, ... it is quite natural for her to look the way she is many are ashamed to be."

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What can you compare writing poems to? Please share your thoughts on this.

Different types of poems — different processes. When I write a verlibre, there must already be a strong image, a metaphor, an allegory, etc., which came to mind more or less suddenly and begs to be painted, introduced in the text. This verlibre rod is never the result of careful brainstorming — it always shoots in the head, appears from the subconscious (most often at night, when it is time to fall asleep, but the brain is still active).
Such an expression can also be used in a rhyming poem, but it occupies a small part of it. After all, a rhyming poem requires brainstorming, careful digging of the vocabulary, thinking, choosing rhymes at least.
The most energy-consuming for me is the translation of rhyming texts into English. This process is similar to putting together a puzzle — you need to search matches by word, by sound, but so as not to distort the meaning of the original text.

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What are you working on now?

I began arranging the upcoming poetry collection "Verlosyped" (it was awarded with the II Smoloskyp prize in 2021 and will be published by the Smoloskyp publishing house). The publisher allows the collection to differ by 30% from the manuscript submitted for the contest, and I want to take advantage of this: I will make a separate section with poems about the war. In 2022 and 2023, this collection seemed to me out of time, but now my opinion has changed.
By the way, I never wanted to make a separate collection of poems about the war — for almost a decade it has become our everyday life, so it is closely intertwined with other reasons for reflection through texts.
In addition to the poems (some of which have not yet been completed), I will make several plasticine illustrations.
The second direction of literary work is translations of poems into English (with mandatory editing by a native speaker, of course). This is my tiny contribution to the fight against the enemy. I will explain.
Last year, a poet and volunteer Vitaliy Byrchak launched the project of a bilingual poetry collection and photo album 2 in 1 named "For Invincible". I was the co-author and co-translator of the book. In less than a year, the project made it possible to collect about UAH 400,000 for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and also spread the truth about the russian-Ukrainian war not only on the territory of my Motherland, but also abroad — book presentations took place in 15 Ukrainian cities and 4 more European ones. Therefore, in the last days of 2023, Vitaliy Byrchak proposed (and the team of co-authors agreed) to create another collection of poems in order to continue to help the army in 2024. The book will be published by Folio publishing house, which has agreed to our donation terms and special prices for books.
Most of all, we would like to finish the new book in a time when the need for donations disappeared, because the war was over. But so far there are no prerequisites for such a miracle.
About children's literature: I will try to arrange already written fairy tales and collections of poems. Perhaps life itself will throw me something interesting — I am open to suggestions.

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If you liked reading this interview, come to my page in a few days to read the Part 3😁 Thank you!

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