Welcome
I am a writer who helps others tell their stories. My family is from Odesa, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia, and I am from berries and tea and separation.
I teach individual, reading-rich creative writing lessons for children over Zoom. Emphasis is on tapping into the individual young person's voice, building their writing skills, and helping them develop confidence as a writer and reader. We read international and diverse literature along with Anglo-American classics of children's literature.
My book A Life Replaced (Poets & Traitors, 2019) braids together poems on immigration in America with translations from Anna Akhmatova and our contemporary Vladimir Gandelsman, winner of Russia's highest award for poetry, the Moscow Reckoning. Many poems are responses to these two voices; some are stand-alone works. The foreword is by Ilya Kaminsky. You can read reviews in the Los Angeles Review of Books and Reading in Translation.
And to stay in touch, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter.
Welcome, and enjoy your stay!
Upcoming
Events
Diaspora Voices for Ukraine: A Night of Art Beyond Empire
The 2022 invasion of Ukraine is but the latest act of Russian (Soviet) imperialism. To mark one year since the occupation, writers, artists, and musicians gather to speak out against violence.
Rhizome DC, Washington, DC
February 25, 2023, at 7 PM
Books against Missiles and Shrapnel: Poetry from Ukraine
AWP 2023 Panel Reading with Oksana Maksymchuk, Olena Jennings, Oksana Lutsyshyna, and Max Rosochinsky
Seattle Convention Center
March 10, 2023
Discussion on Poetry and the War in Ukraine with Lyudmyla Khersonska & Katarzyna Jakubiak
Millersville University,
Millersville, PA
April 13, 2023
Reading of Ukrainian Poetry in Translation with Ilya Kaminsky, Carolyn Forché, Maya Chhabra, & Andrew Janco
Brookline Booksmith
Brookline, MA
May 6, 2023, at 7 PM
Panel on Lyudmyla Khersonska's Poetry in Translation with Maya Chhabra, & Andrew Janco
Drexel Writing Festival
Drexel University, Philadelphia
Third Floor of the Stern Library
May 11, 2023, from 2 PM to 3:20
Reading with Janet Sylvester
Grolier Poetry Book Shop
June 9, 2023
To find out more, follow me on social media at @olgalivshin.