Halyna Kruk nominated for prestigious Griffin Poetry Prize

Ukrainian poet Halyna Kruk has been shortlisted for the international Griffin Poetry Prize with her book “A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails.”

This was reported on the Prize’s official website.

“These stunning poems of witness by one of Ukraine’s most revered poets are by turns breathless, philosophical, and visionary. In a dark recapitulation of evolution itself,” Kruk writes: “nothing predicted the arrival of humankind…./ nothing predicted the arrival of the tank…” Her taught, lean lines can turn epigrammatic: “what will kill you will seduce you first,” or they can strike you like Lomachenko’s lightening jabs: “flirt, Cheka agent, bitch,” is written in the annotation to the book.

Most of the work in this poetry collection was written after Feb. 24, 2022, in both Ukrainian and English. The collection was translated by Yulia Ilchuk, an Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature at Stanford University, and Amelia M. Glaser, an Associate Professor of Russian and comparative literature at the University of California, San Diego. This collection was nominated for the Sundara Ramaswamy Prize.

The Griffin Poetry Prize is one of the largest in the world, which grants two literary prizes of $65,000. The Canadian Prize is given to a living poet/translator and the International — to a living poet/translator from any country in the world, including Canada. Other shortlisted poets receive $10,000.

Shortlists will be announced on April 17.

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Main image: Suspilne news

Translation: Iryna Saviuk

Editing: John G Sennett, Sr; Terra Friedman King