We spoke with Vasyl Karpyuk about Ukrainian book publishing and literature in general in the new episode of “Antithesis” from Souspilnist Foundation.
Vasyl Karpyuk is a poet and writer for adults and children. He is a co-founder of the Discursus publishing house and a researcher of Hutsulshchyna.
Ivan Tsyperdiuk and Ira Mykhalchuk anchored the event.
Here are key excerpts from the conversation.
“My destiny is literature about Hutsulshchyna.
When we founded the publishing house, this topic sounded too local to me: “Ukraine is big, so we’d better publish something for the general audience.” However, I realized there was hardly anyone working in this area, publishing Hutsul authors. I wanted everyone to know this cool mythology and folklore. Though still not widely known, when it’s published and goes to the libraries, people will see it giving it newfound relevance.
Some time ago, Hnatiuk, Shekeryk, Shukhevych, and many others collected the material from Hutsulshchyna and published it in their ethnical and biographical collections. These works are in the archives or can be found online as scanned copies, so publishing can make them relevant again. Notably, the reading audience is there.”
“The My Bookshelf publishing house has already released a book about the children who died in the war. I think there’ll be hundreds of such texts because this part of Ukraine’s history will always be remembered and written about, reverberating. There’ll be many of them, and they’ll be of high quality.
We’ve begun making world-class books. We look at how they publish them in Europe, the US, and Japan, and we’re experimenting a lot. Ukrainian books sell well abroad, which speaks well of their quality. So, I think everything will be fine with Ukrainian book publishing. The most important thing is to gain victory as soon as possible, which will enable writers and publishers to document, convey, and depict all the information.”
“It’s difficult to say anything new about russian propaganda, but apparently they (russians) believe their propaganda – a sort of self-suggestion. They start believing they’re a great people, a great empire. Eventually, the world begins to react negatively. However, Ukraine’s very existence prevents them from creating the myth they wish to have. Because how can russia come from the word “Rus,” if the capital of Kyivan Rus is in Ukraine? I don’t even know how to explain that. Maybe psychologists should get together with historians to try and explain whether those complexes could be cured so russians would reconsider their history, which I doubt. They should understand that they do have a history but a smaller one. And who says it must be bigger? It won’t be the most ancient anyway: dinosaurs were there earlier.”
“I guess this war is here for long, and we’ll all have to fight. At least people my age.
I didn’t serve in the army, I don’t have military training, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get into a tank, but there may be some other tasks like digging or delivering things, many different functions. Eventually, they’ll issue an order to be implemented. I think many people will have to participate in the war. I think it’s just the beginning, but it’ll bring us to where we want to be – the victory day. Then we’ll celebrate.
You can watch the broadcast on Souspilnist Foundation’s Facebook page and our partner media platforms: KURS, Reporter, and TRC RAI.
