In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Glen Huser’s novel, Firebird. Fourteen-year old Alex Kaminsky and his older brother Marco live with their Uncle Andrew on an Alberta farm. Marco is a talented artist, but he decides he must find work with a threshing crew in September 1915. One night in early […]
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch’s novel, Winterkill. Winterkill examines the experience of Ukrainians during the Holodomor of the 1930’s. The narrative describes the conscious choice of Russian Soviet authorities to starve Ukrainian farmers and their families in order to impose Stalin’s five-year plan. “It was supposed to
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Canada and the Ukrainian Crisis by Bohdan Kordan and Mitchell Dowie. Canada and the Ukrainian Crisis examines how Canada supported Ukraine after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the destabilization of Donetsk and Luhansk in 2014. This bilateral relationship has continued to evolve as it adapts
Transcript: Rosh Hashana is the name for the Jewish New Year. In Hebrew it means the “head of the year.” Rosh Hashanah is one of the most important religious holidays for Jews. It is the first of the Jewish High Holy Days, as specified by Leviticus 23:23–25. Rosh Hashanah marks the first day of the
Survival as Victory by Oksana Kis explores how Ukrainian women endured and resisted Soviet repression in the Gulag. Drawing on over 150 personal accounts, this powerful work reveals how identity, faith, and dignity became acts of defiance. Myra Junyk reviews Kis’s groundbreaking work, highlighting its relevance amid renewed aggression against Ukraine in 2022. Transcript: In
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger’s historical novel, The Woman at the Gates. The Woman at the Gates begins in the summer of 1945 in Bavaria. Antonia, her sister Lena, and her two nephews are recovering after their harrowing experiences in World War II. They have fond memories of
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Ksenia Rychtyka’s poetry chapbook, A Sky Full of Wings. A Sky Full of Wings is collection of twenty-five poems selected as a finalist in the 2020 New Women’s Voices Chapbook Competition. Chapbooks are short volumes of less than forty pages, which often take the form
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing The Battle for Ukrainian – A Comparative Perspective, edited by Michael S. Flier and Andrea Graziosi. The Battle for Ukrainian – A Comparative Perspective, published by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, outlines the difficult history of the Ukrainian language. In June 2014, the
In this edition of Knyzka Corner, we will be discussing Yuri Kostenko’s book Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament – A History. Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament – A History, published by the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, outlines the factors which led Ukraine to sign the Budapest Memorandum in 1994. This agreement denuclearized the country. It also
Hanukkah is a joyous holiday, celebrated every year by Jews around the world with the lighting of candles on a candelabra called a menorah, or hanukkiya* in modern Hebrew. Traditional Hanukkah treats include potato latkes, called plyatsky or deruny in Ukrainian, and sufganiyot, doughnuts with jam, called pampushky in Ukrainian. There is also a tradition to give Chanukeh gelt—coins, and
