Victoria Boyko Archives

Confession of a poet after a year of war

If you think of yourself as a poet or a poetess and you are considering taking this path seriously, most likely sooner or later you will ask yourself this question: what can I do for poetry?

Each Moment Somewhere For Someone The World Is Ending

Few weeks ago (mid January it was)* I took part in a writer’s conference with other international writers in Kolkata, India. It was a panel discussion addressing the topic of “Writing for the post-pandemic world”.

At a High Cost

The morning begins with a final farewell to a soldier in our yard. He died in the war. A message about this appeared in the neighbor chat yesterday, indicating the building number and the entrance. High-rise buildings, just like low-rise ones, can’t avoid loss in wartime. There are more than 800 apartments in our building. Is there at least one unaffected by the war?

Alive. Love You

He was so eager to join the army. Finally, he got conscripted. We couldn’t get in touch with him for several days, I already began bracing ourselves to say goodbye to him. And then in the evening Valerik sent me a message: ‘Alive. Love you’.

Stencil of the 20th Century

If someone had told me that I would live through such a situation, I would not have believed: during the war in the city, sirens keep going off, there is no electricity and no heat supply, but, despite everything, people dress up, get on the subway, take cars or trolleybuses and go to the theater for a literary night.

Write, just to forget

People come to meetings with writers in the wartime for many reasons. The first of them is an opportunity to speak on the topics that cannot be hushed up. To hear how one should fight the enemy, but remain a human, with love in one’s heart.

Kherson is Ukraine

They were killing people of culture for their unwillingness to cooperate. Thus, one of the numerous crimes still remains shocking: the chief conductor of Kherson Music and Drama Theatre Yuriy Kerpatenko was killed by Russian military men in his own house after he refused to cooperate with the invaders. Con-duc-tor!

Habit 2022: Surviving

Residents of Ukrainian cities, who, for almost a year now, have been living in the conditions of great war, constant shelling and daily disasters, do not wake up to an alarm clock. They are awakened by an app that loudly imitates a siren and warns: “Air raid alarm! Immediately follow to the nearest shelter!”

When will you go away, you traitor?

The Ukrainian city of Kherson was under occupation for more than eight months. Having occupied the city in spite of the powerful civic resistance, on March 1 the Russian army shot 17 territorial defense soldiers from tanks.

The New Black in Ukraine

The first news about the potential blackout in the capital of Ukraine shocked everyone.

Tag: Victoria Boyko