Ukrainian – Page 4 – Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

Roberts Elementary author visit

I had a wonderful visit with Roberts Elementary in Gwinnett County, Georgia last week. I’ve been virtually visiting students at this school for a number of years and have such respect for their media specialist, Tiffanie, who has an infectiously positive and generous perspective on life. I also love how her students come up with the BEST questions. There were about 9 classes participating in the session and each one had 3 questions. My favorite question from yesterday was, if you could tell your younger self something, what would it be? My answer: that the people who told me I was a slow learner were wrong. I was a different learner, and that would ultimately be a gift.

Have to say, meeting with students is one of the most wonderful aspects of being a writer.

Tiffanie made my day when she emailed this after the session: WOW! WOW! WOW!

You have a magical way of engaging our students sparking curiosity that lasts way beyond your visit! You answered their questions with such grace, care, and honesty. We loved it!

The 6 pee wee eggs I made before English Easter this year

I have been in heavy novel-writing-mode so not much time for egg-writing. These are the 6 pysanky that I managed to do this year before Easter. Half of them have been gifted to family. Love working on pee wee eggs!

Made on World Pysanky Day

For World Pysanky Day. A traditional design from Zakarpattia on the left in memory of my Ukrainian grandmother, who was born there. On the right, a traditional design from Bukovyna, for my Ukrainian grandfather, who was born there.

Kobzar interview re Winterkill

Thank you, Ryan Boyko and the Shevchenko Foundation, for creating this interview about the inspiration for Winterkill. This was filmed at Firefly & Fox, a great independent bookstore in Simcoe Ontario.

Pysanka, first steps

Canadian Ukrainian Art Foundation Talk

It was an honour to be invited to speak at KUMPF gallery, and it was so nice to catch up with old friends and to chat with many young readers. I loved presenting amidst Bohdan Holowacki’s vast talent — see those paintings on the wall? His artwork will be exhibited until Dec 23! Thanks to Uliana Hlynchak for organizing, and thanks to Sonia Bodnar for reading the same selection from «Викрадене дитя» as I read in the original English edition of Stolen Girl. Yulia Lyubka is a brilliant translator, as everyone in the audience witnessed. It was a particularly emotional reading, as my husband was in the audience and the scene was based on his late mother’s escape from the Nazis. Lidia would have loved to hear this, especially in Ukrainian. Here is a FB video from the event.

Marta Humeniuk, whose parents were dear friends of my husband’s.

The people behind the books

For the past several Decembers I’ve been invited to attend the awards gala for the Peterson Literary Fund, but I’ve only been able to attend this year and last. Both years, the evening was profound in unexpected ways. This year’s event was to celebrate excellence in translation. The Turkish translation of Robert Paul Magosci’s iconic A History of Ukraine was the top prize winner. This recognition thrilled me not only because this translation will help educate Turkish readers about the history of Ukraine at a time when Russian disinformation is rampant, but also because two of the three translators are scholars who have generously assisted me with research for a novel set partly in the Ottoman Empire in the 1500s: Maryna Kravets and Victor Ostapchuk.

Another honoured book was the English translation of Iroida Wynnyckyj’s Extraordinary Lives of Ukrainian Canadian Women, translated by Marta Olynyk. Iroida has connected me with many people to interview for my books ever since I first began writing books. It was so nice to see her at this event and congratulate her in person. And by sheer coincidence, my husband and I were seated at the same table as the daughter of one of those key interviewees — Marta Varvaruk, the daughter of Anelia Varvaruk — whose crisp memories and spirited endurance of her time in a Nazi slave camp became key inspiration for my most popular novel, Making Bombs for Hitler.

Maryna Kravets (coral necklace), Iroida Wynnyckyj (blue dress) and Marta Varvaruk (white and black glasses).

Meeting Anne Applebaum at the Peterson Foundation Gala

There are few historians who can match Anne Applebaum’s authority on topics that I write about so I was thrilled to be invited again to attend the Peterson Literary Foundation dinner (this past Friday), and particularly thrilled with the opportunity to listen to Applebaum in person. My copy of Red Famine looks like a porcupine with yellow quills because it has so many sticky notes in it. It was at my side as I wrote Winterkill. Needless to say, the chance to chat with Anne Applebaum was a dream come true.

ART TALK with Canadian Writer Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch

A visit to St. Josephat Catholic School

Halyna Kostiuk, Ukrainian teacher extraordinaire at St. Josephat Catholic School in Etobicoke, arranged for me to visit last Thursday with grade 7 and 8 students. They had been reading as a class my novel, Stolen Girl, the Ukrainian version. Many of the students are recent refugees from Ukraine, fleeing Putin’s brutal war.

It was poignant for me to speak with them about the real history behind Stolen Girl — victims of Hitler’s Lebensborn program — the kids who were kidnapped by the Nazis and brainwashed into thinking they were German and placed into German homes. This novel was written to fulfil a promise I made to my mother-in-law before she died. She had lost half of her classmates to the Lebensborn program in WWII and she felt very guilty the rest of her life for surviving while her friends didn’t.

For these students to be able to read this book in their own language is bittersweet, seeing as Putin is now channeling Hitler, and doing his own Lebensborn program, kidnapping Ukrainian children, brainwashing them, and placing them in Russian homes. So much for “never again.”

I cannot post photos of the students for privacy reasons, but here are pics with teachers. On the table that was prepared for me to display my books, note the beautiful orange roses the students presented me with, and the Roshen chocolates — yum! It was a Ukrainian-themed day because after the visit, I dropped by Pelman Perogies factory outlet for a LOT of mushroom potato perogies, then off to Koota Ooma to buy my sister a Christmas present.