New names of Ukraine and The Golden Harp (in Ukraine), Burnaby Writers’ Society Poetry Contest (in Canada), International Literary Prize of Ivan Koshelivets (Israel)
Svetlana Ischenko was born on July 30, 1969, in Mykolaiv,[7] in the steppe region of the south of Ukraine.
She graduated from Mykolaiv public school number 38. Svetlana pursued her childhood love of music at the Mykolaiv Rimsky-Korsakov Music School, and graduated in piano in 1986. She received a College Diploma in Acting, Stage Directing and Visual Art from the Mykolaiv State College of Culture in 1988. She later attended the Mykolaiv Branch of the Kyiv State University of Culture and Arts and received a BA in Recreation Management and Pedagogy in 1998.[8]
For several years (1988–2001), Ischenko was a stage actress at the Mykolaiv Ukrainian Theatre of Drama and Musical Comedy.[9] She played a number of significant characters from classic Ukrainian and European plays,[10] among them Marusia (Marusia Churai by Lina Kostenko), Catherine (Catherine by Taras Shevchenko), Motrya (Kaydash's Family by Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky), Yaryna (Where There are people, There is Sin by І. Tobilevych), Ryna (Myna Mazaylo by Mykola Kulish), Prince (Dregs by Janusz Glovatsky), Julie (The Family Weekend by Jean Poiret), and Countess Rosine (Marriage of Figaro by P. Beaumarchais).[11] Svetlana also created many poetic texts and songs for thematic programs, plays and musical shows for the Mykolaiv Ukrainian Theatre of Drama and Musical Comedy.
A number of Ukrainian composers and singers have created songs using Ischenko's poetry for lyrics—Viktor Ures, Viktor Piatygorsky, Oleksandr Nezhyhai, Olena Nikishenko, Oleksandr Honcharenko, Anna Oliynykova, and others.[12]
In 2001, Ischenko immigrated to Canada. She lives in North Vancouver, British Columbia.[13] Svetlana continues to keep in close contact with Ukraine. She writes in Ukrainian and English. Her literary achievement includes translations.[14] Svetlana Ischenko is a co-translator of English versions of poetry by Dmytro Kremin, winner of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian National Literary Prize.[15]
Ischenko's field of work in Canada is creating and teaching children's programs in visual arts, ballet, creative dance, Jazz, hip-hop, and musical theatre at Recreational Centres in North Vancouver.[16] She has given poetry readings at the Vancouver Public Library in the “World Poetry Reading Series” and radio interviews on Vancouver's Co-op Radio as well as Voice of America (“Musical Rainbow” by Alexandr Kaganovsky) in the U.S.[17]
Publications
Ischenko's poems were first published in the Mykolaiv regional newspaper The Soviet Prybuzhia on December 14, 1991.[18]
Svetlana's literary work has appeared widely in a variety of publications in Ukraine, including magazines such as Dzvin (Lviv), Kyiv (Kyiv), Gorozhanin (Mykolaiv), Dyvoslovo (Kyiv), Art-Line (Kyiv), Vitchyzna (Kyiv), Kurier Kryvbasu (Kryviy Rih), and Vezha (Kropyvnytskyi), almanacs such as Borviy (Mykolaiv), Buzsky Gard (Mykolaiv), and Osvityanski vitryla (Mykolaiv), and in poetry anthologies such as Pochatki (Kyiv, Smoloskyp Press, 1998) and The Mykolaiv Oberih (Mykolaiv, Mozhlyvosti Kimmerii Press, 2004).[19]
Svetlana's poems have also been published in Canadian literary magazines such as The Antigonish Review (Antigonish, Nova Scotia),[20] Lichen (Whitby, Ontario),[21] Event (Vancouver, British Columbia),[22] and in poetic anthologies such as From This New World (Vancouver, Canada, 2003)[23] and Che Wach Choe—Let the Delirium Begin (Lantzville, British Columbia, 2003).[24]
Ischenko's co-translations of the poetry of Dmytro Kremin, winner of the Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian National Literary Prize, have appeared in well-known literary magazines such as London Magazine (London, England, 2007), Prism International (Vancouver, Canada, 2007), and Hayden’s Ferry Review (Arizona, US, 2009), in the trilingual collection Two Shores (Mykolaiv, Iryna Hudym Publisher, 2007)[25] and in the book Poems From The Scythian Wild Field (Ekstasis Editions, Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2016) -- a selection of the poetry of Dmytro Kremin translated into English by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton[26]
…Where a country lies under a willow tree,
Where the steppe spreads wide,
There is your motherland, lad,
The sun and the crepe of the sky.
Where the hellish history of the nation lies deep,
Where the snowball tree and hawthorn grow --
There is your spring water,
The Ukrainian world.
— Svetlana Ischenko, from the poem "Source"
Books of poetry
1995 Chorals of the Earth and Sky (Ukrainian Writer—Vyr Press, Kyiv, Ukraine), including A Crane’s Cry, a dramatic play based on the novel by Roman Ivanychuk[27]
Dmytro Kremin The Horse Constellation (magazine The Malahat Review, issue 188, Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2014),[32]The Lost Manuscript (magazine The London Magazine, issue June–July 2007, London, England),[33]Don Quixote From the Estuary (magazine Prism International, issue 45:4, Summer 2007, Vancouver, Canada),[34]The Tower of Pisa, The Tendra Mustungs' Odyssey, Wild Honey, A Church in the Middle of the Universe, Christmas in Bohopil, The Hunt For the Wild Boar (magazine Hayden's Ferry Review, issue 44, spring-summer 2009, Virginia, Arizona, US).[35]
Poems From The Scythian Wild Field (Ekstasis Editions, Victoria, B.C., Canada, 2016) -- a selection of the poetry of Dmytro Kremin translated into English by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton[36]
Dmytro Kremin The Lost Manuscript (magazine The Walrus, issue June 2022, Toronto, Canada)[37]
From Russian into Ukrainian
Sergei Yesenin Persian Motives in the book B-Sharp (Mykolaiv, "Можливості Кіммерії", 1998)[38]
Alexandr Pushkin To the Fountain of the Bakhchisaray Palace in the book The Trees Have Flown Up In Couples (Mykolaiv, «Видавництво Віктора Швеця», 2019)[39]
Larisa Маtveyevа (selected poems) in the book The Trees Have Flown Up In Couples (Mykolaiv, «Видавництво Віктора Швеця», 2019)[40]
From English into Ukrainian
Seven Canadian poets in translation in Variations on the Word Love: Anthology of Canadian Poets (magazine Kyiv, issue 7-8, 2017, Ukraine)[41]
Canadian Poetry translated by Svetlana Ischenko (magazine "Soborna Vulytsia" (Cathedral Street), Mykolaiv, December, 2017)[42]
Awards
in Ukraine:The New Names of Ukraine and The Golden Harp, 1995
in Canada:Burnaby Writers’ Society Poetry Contest, 2003
in Israel:The International Literary Prize of Ivan Koshelivets, 2013[43]
^Shuliar, Vasyl. Живлюща сила Ємигії: Літературна антологія Миколаївщини [Live Power of Emyhia: Literary Anthology of Mykolaiv Region] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Іліон", 2014. pp. 212–217. ISBN978-617-534-289-3.
^Shuliar, Vasyl. Живлюща сила Ємигії: Літературна антологія Миколаївщини [Live Power of Emyhia: Literary Anthology of Mykolaiv Region] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Іліон", 2014. pp. 212–217. ISBN978-617-534-289-3.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Варіації зі словом "Любов": Антологія канадських поетів [Variations on the Word Love: Anthology of Canadian Poets]. Kyiv (in Ukrainian) (#7–8, 2017): 117–137.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. "Svetlana Ischenko: Three Poems". The Antigonish Review (in Ukrainian and English) (130, summer 2002). Nova Scotia, Canada: 12–17.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. "Svetlana Ischenko: Clinging to Their Sails". Lichen. 7 (2, fall–winter 2005). Whitby, Ontario, Canada ": 36.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. "Svetlana Ischenko: Instead of the Wings of Cranes". Event. 33 (1, spring 2004). New Westminster, B.C., Canada: 46.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. "Svetlana Ischenko: The Colours of Chagall's Love". From This New World. Vancouver, B.C., Canada, 2003: 25–27.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
^Che Wach Choe -- Let the Delirium Begin: Anthology of Love Poems. Lantzville, B.C., Canada: "Leaf Press", 2003. 2002. ISBN978-0-9730243-7-1.
^Kremin, Dmytro; Puchkov, Volodymyr. Два береги [Two Shores] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: видавництво Ірини Гудим, 2008. ISBN978-966-8592-51-5.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Дерева злетіли парами [The Trees Have Flown Up In Couples] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Видавництво Віктора Швеця", 2019. ISBN978-617-7421-80-0.
^Kremin, Dmytro; translated by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton. "The Horse Constellation". The Malahat Review (188, Autumn 2014). Victoria, B.C., Canada: 99.
^Kremin, Dmytro; translated by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton. "The Lost Manuscript". The London Magazine (June–July, 2007). London, England: 16.
^Kremin, Dmytro; translated by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton. "Don Quixote From the Estuary". Prism International (45:4, Summer, 2007). Vancouver, Canada: 49.
^Kremin, Dmytro; translated by Svetlana Ischenko and Russell Thornton. "Poems From the Scythian Wild Field: Introduction to the Poetry of Dmytro Kremin". Hayden's Ferry Review (44, spring–summer 2009). Virginia, Arizona, USA: 48–63.
^Kremin, Dmytro. "The Lost Manuscript". The Walrus (June 2022). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 28.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Сі-дієз [B-Sharp] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Mozhlyvosti Kimmerii", 1998.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Дерева злетіли парами [The Trees Have Flown Up In Couples] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv, Ukraine: "Видавництво Віктора Швеця", 2019. ISBN978-617-7421-80-0.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Дерева злетіли парами [The Trees Have Flown Up In Couples] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv, Ukraine: "Видавництво Віктора Швеця", 2019. ISBN978-617-7421-80-0.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Варіації зі словом "Любов": Антологія канадських поетів [Variations on the Word Love: Anthology of Canadian Poets]. Kyiv (in Ukrainian) (7–8, Autumn 2017): 117–137.
^Ischenko, Svetlana. Канадська поезія [Canadian Poetry]. Cathedral Street (in Ukrainian) (December, 2017).
^Shuliar, Vasyl. Живлюща сила Ємигії: Літературна антологія Миколаївщини [Live Power of Emyhia: Literary Anthology of Mykolaiv Region] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Іліон", 2014. pp. 212–217. ISBN978-617-534-289-3.
V.S.Horbatiuk, P.S.Malish, V.C.Mihaylevsky, A.E.Romasiukov. Південний Буг: літературний альманах [Southern Buh: Literary Almanac] (in Ukrainian). Khmelnytsky: 2019. p. 256. ISBN978-617-513-593-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
V.Shuliar, K.Kartuzov. #ЄТекстМиколаївщини: літературно-художня антологія [#Є Text of Mykolaiv: Literary Anthology] (in Ukrainian). Mykolaiv: "Іліон", 2020. p. 216. ISBN978-617-534-594-8.
Ischenko, Svetlana. "Svetlana Ischenko: Portraits in Free-Verse and Sonnets". Kyiv (in Ukrainian) (1–2, 2022). Kyiv, Ukraine: 111-118.
Kemp, Penn; Sitoski, Richard-Yves (2022). Poems in Response to Peril -- an Anthology in Support of Ukraine. London, Ontario, Canada: Pendas Productions/Laughing Raven Press, 2022. p. 51-53. ISBN978-1-927734-37-7.
Kremin, Dmytro. "The Lost Manuscript". The Walrus (June 2022). Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 28.