Mesopotamia

-

SERHIY ZHADAN was born in the Luhansk Region of Ukraine and educated in Kharkiv. He is the author of twelve books of poetry. His prose works include Big Mac (2003), Depeche Mode (2004), Anarchy in the UKR (2005), Hymn of the Democratic Youth (2006), Voroshilovgrad (2010), and Mesopotamia (2014). Zhadan’s books have been translated into English, German, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Belarusian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Russian. He is the front man for the band Zhadan and the Dogs.

REILLY COSTIGAN-HUMES and ISAAC STACKHOUSE WHEELER are a team of literary translators who work with both Ukrainian and Russian. They studied together at Haverford College. Their debut translation, Serhiy Zhadan’s novel Voroshilovgrad, was published in May 2016.

VIRLANA TKACZ and WANDA PHIPPS have received the National Theatre Translation Fund Award, the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Translation Award and twelve translation grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. Their translations have appeared in many literary journals and anthologies, and are integral to the theater pieces created by Yara Arts Group. www.brama.com/yara.

Translations by Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps were supported by public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Special thanks to Svitlana Matviyenko, Sofia Riabchuk, Julian Kytasty, Olena Jennings, and Kateryna Babkina for their assistance with the poetry translations and to Tanya Rodionova and Tania Maiboroda for their assistance with the prose translation.