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Victoria Amelina

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In this name that followsEastern Slavic naming customs,thepatronymicisYuriyivnaand thefamily nameisAmelina.

Victoria Amelina
Amelina in 2015
Amelina in 2015
Native name
Вікторія Амеліна
BornViktoriia Yuriivna Amelina
(1986-01-01)1 January 1986
Lviv,Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
Died1 July 2023(2023-07-01)(aged 37)
Dnipro,Ukraine
Occupation
  • Novelist
  • essayist
Literary movementMember ofPEN International
Notable works
  • Fall Syndrome(2014)
  • Dom's Dream Kingdom(2017)
Notable awards

Viktoriia Yuriyivna Amelina(néeShalamay;Ukrainian:Вікторія Юріївна Амеліна;1 January 1986 – 1 July 2023), later known asVictoria Amelina,was a Ukrainian novelist and war crimes researcher. She was the author of two novels and a children's book, a winner of the Joseph Conrad Literary Award[1]and aEuropean Union Prize for Literaturefinalist.[2]

Early life and education[edit]

Victoria Amelina was born inLviv.She emigrated to Canada with her father at the age of fourteen, then returned to Ukraine soon after.[3]At age 15, she was chosen to represent Lviv at a Russian-language contest in Moscow.[4]After completing a degree in computer science in Lviv,[5]Amelina started her career in IT before becoming a full-time writer and poet in 2015.[6]

Writing[edit]

From 2015, when her first bookСиндром листопаду, або Homo Compatiens(The Fall Syndrome: about, or Homo Compatiens) was published, she dedicated her time solely to writing. Her debut novel deals with the events atMaidan in 2014;the foreword was written byYurii Izdryk.The novel has received several literary awards, and was welcomed by critics and scholars from Ukraine and wider Europe.[7][8]

In 2016, Amelina published a book for children calledХтось, або водяне серце(Somebody, or Water Heart).[5]

In 2017, she published a novel,Дім для Дома[5](Dom's Dream Kingdom), about the family of a Soviet colonel who in the 1990s lived in the former childhood apartment in Lviv of the Polish Jewish authorStanisław Lem.[9][10]The novel was short-listed for the LitAkcent literary award in 2017.[9]and European Union Prize for Literature in 2019.[11]In 2023 Amelina was offered a UK publishing deal for the book.[12]

Amelina was a member ofPEN International.In 2018, she took part in 84th World PEN Congress in India as a delegate from Ukraine and gave a speech on Ukrainian filmmaker and political prisoner in RussiaOleg Sentsov.[13]In 2021 she received the Joseph Conrad Korzeniowski Literary Prize.[14]That same year, she started a literature festival in theDonetsk region.[14]

In 2022, she started writing poetry as well.[15]She explained her motivations for this, saying "" That's what war leaves you. The sentences are as short as possible, the punctuation a redundant luxury, the plot unclear, but every word carries so much meaning. All this applies to poetry as well as to war ".[16]Her prose and poems have been translated into numerous other languages.[5]

In June 2023 Amelina was awarded a yearlong residency in Paris for displaced Ukrainian writers.[17]She planned to use the residency to finish her most recent book,Looking at Women Looking at War,described as "a diary of about a dozen women, including [herself], pursuing justice".[12][17]She was killed before her residency started.[17]

Wartime work[edit]

After theRussian invasion of Ukrainestarted, she worked as a war crimes researcher for Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian organization.[18][19][17]She used her training as a novelist to interview witnesses.[17]

In September 2022, while doing research in theIziumregion, she uncovered the war diary of fellow Ukrainian writerVolodymyr Vakulenko,who had been killed by the occupying forces in March 2022.[17][20]In May 2023, Vakulenko received a posthumous award from theInternational Publishers Association,which Amelina accepted on his behalf.[17]

Amelina also hosted internally displaced Ukrainians and helped to deliver humanitarian aid in Lviv.[17]

Personal life and death[edit]

Amelina had a son in the early 2010s.

As of 2022, Amelina lived in Kyiv.[18]In June 2023, after receiving a residency in Paris, Amelina considered moving there with her 12-year-old son.[17]

On 27 June 2023, she was injured during theRussian attack on Kramatorskwhile she was dining at RIA Pizza together withHéctor Abad,Sergio Jaramilloand Catalina Gómez. The restaurant was hit by anIskandermissile.[21][22]Amelina died due to her injuries on 1 July at the Mechnikov Hospital inDniproat the age of 37.[23][24]She was buried in Lviv.[17]

In 2023, a tribute to Amelina,Nothing Bad Has Ever Happened,was published by Arrowsmith Press. It included international contributions and previously published work by Amelina in English translation.[25]

Bibliography[edit]

  • «Синдром листопаду, або Homo Compatiens, The Fall Syndrome or Homo Compatiens» (Discursus, 2014)[26]ISBN9786177236091
  • «Синдром листопаду, або Homo Compatiens, The Fall Syndrome or Homo Compatiens» (Віват, 2015)[26]ISBN9786176901716
  • «Хтось, Або Водяне Серце, Somebody or Waterheart» (Видавництво Старого Лева, 2016)[26]ISBN9788771270372
  • «Дім для Дома, Dom's Dream Kingdom» (Видавництво Старого Лева, 2017)[26]ISBN9786176794165
  • «Е-е-есторії екскаватора Еки, Stories of Eka the Excavator»[Архівовано 28 липня 2021 у Wayback Machine.] (Львів: Видавництво Старого Лева, 2021)[26]ISBN978-617-679-924-5.

Anthologies[edit]

  • «Це зробила вона, She Did It» (Видавництво «Видавництво», 2017)[26]
  • «Лялька, Doll» (Видавництво Старого Лева, 2018)[26]
  • «Мости замість стін, Bridges Instead of Walls» (Видавництво Старого Лева, 2020)[26]
  • «Що дасть нам силу?, What Gives Us Strength» (Дух і літера, 2020)[26]
  • «Ковчег „Титанік ". 20 есеїв про людство зразка 2020–го, The Arc Called Titanic. 20 Essays on Humanity of 2020» (онлайн-антологія 27 Bookforum, 2020)[26]

Awards[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^"The Conrad Literary Award granted by the Polish Institute in Kyiv".The Polish Book Institute. 17 December 2021.
  2. ^"Eurozine".31 March 2022.
  3. ^"Colgate Mourns Death of Ukrainian Writer Victoria Amelina | Colgate University".www.colgate.edu.7 July 2023.Retrieved15 July2023.
  4. ^Amelina, Victoria (6 July 2023)."Victoria Amelina: Ukraine and the meaning of home".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved15 July2023.
  5. ^abcd"Amelina Victoria".PEN Ukraine.April 2022.Retrieved1 June2023.
  6. ^"Victoria Amelina, war crimes researcher, killed in missile attack".www.aljazeera.com.3 July 2023.Retrieved3 July2023.
  7. ^"Eastern partnership literary review 2015/ 2".Issuu.com.16 March 2016.Retrieved18 August2017.
  8. ^"Empathy – the only thing that will save us: anthropology of Homo Compatiens in the novel of Victoria Amelina".Aesthetic-potential.com.1 December 2015. Archived fromthe originalon 14 August 2017.Retrieved18 August2017.
  9. ^abSzablatura, Martin."Victoria Amelina: Pouze literatura | MAČ2017".brno.mac365.cz(in Czech).Retrieved10 May2019.[dead link]
  10. ^"Wrocław in the City of Lem. The beginning of an international seminar".Wroclaw2016.pl.Retrieved18 August2017.
  11. ^"EUPL 2019 shortlisted candidates — European Union Prize for Literature".euprizeliterature.eu.Archived fromthe originalon 7 May 2019.Retrieved7 May2019.
  12. ^abHiggins, Charlotte (14 July 2023)."Stalin erased one generation of Ukraine's artists. Now Putin is killing another – including my friend".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved15 July2023.
  13. ^""The stories win people's minds, not bullets": Victoria Amelina's speech about the trial of Sentsov at the 84th PEN Congress in Pune ".PEN Ukraine.29 September 2018.Retrieved7 May2019.
  14. ^abVinograd, Cassandra (3 July 2023)."Ukrainian Writer Victoria Amelina Dies After Kramatorsk Strike".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved15 July2023.
  15. ^Higgins, Charlotte (9 December 2022)."For Ukrainians, poetry isn't a luxury, it's a necessity during war".The Guardian.
  16. ^Simon, Scott (8 July 2023)."Opinion: Remembering Ukrainian poet Victoria Amelina".NPR.Retrieved15 July2023.
  17. ^abcdefghijKakissis, Joanna; Harbage, Claire; Palamarenko, Hanna (15 July 2023)."She saved the diary of a Ukrainian writer killed by Russia. Then she was killed, too".NPR.Retrieved15 July2023.
  18. ^abDevlin, Martina (21 October 2022)."An unshakable resolve persists in Ukraine, says Kyiv writer Victoria Amelina as she shares horrific war truths".independent.Retrieved25 October2022.
  19. ^Giovanni, Janine di (22 October 2022)."The Defiance of Celebrating Literature in the Midst of War".Foreign Policy.Retrieved25 October2022.
  20. ^Duggan, Keith (25 March 2023). "Uncovering the buried diary of an executed Ukrainian writer".The Irish Times.
  21. ^"Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelina in hospital after Kramatorsk missile strike".Yahoo! News.29 June 2023.
  22. ^Graham-Harrison, Emma (30 June 2023)."Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina critically injured in Kramatorsk strike".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved1 July2023.
  23. ^"Victoria Amelina, a Ukrainian writer, and our dearest colleague, passed away".PEN Ukraine.2 July 2023.
  24. ^"Ukrainian writer dies after Kramatorsk strike".BBC News.2 July 2023.Retrieved3 July2023.
  25. ^"Books".ARROWSMITH.Retrieved2 May2024.
  26. ^abcdefghij"Amelina Victoria".PEN Ukraine.1 April 2022.Retrieved5 July2023.
  27. ^Decree of the President of Ukraine from 22 січня 2024 year № 16/2024«Про відзначення державними нагородами України з нагоди Дня Соборності України»(in Ukrainian)

External links[edit]

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