Oksana Lutsyshyna

Poet, scholar, and translator Oksana Lutsyshyna was born in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. She is the author of four poetry collections, one of which has been translated into English: Persephone Blues. She also published one collection of short stories and two novels, the most recent of which, Ivan and Phoebe, won two of the most prestigious literary awards in Ukraine: the Lviv City of Literature UNESCO Prize and Taras Shevchenko National Prize in fiction, and has been translated by Nina Murray (Deep Vellum Publishing, forthcoming summer 2023). Her original poetry and translations also appeared in Words for War, an anthology of Ukrainian poetry in English responding to the ongoing war in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donbas.

Lutsyshyna earned a BA in English from Uzhhorod National University, MAs in French and Gender Studies from the University of South Florida, and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Georgia. She translates alone or in collaboration with Olena Jennings, Kevin Vaughn, and Daniel Belgrad. Her translations of poems and essays by Vasyl Makhno, Marianna Kiyanovska, Bohdana Matiyash, and other Ukrainian authors have appeared in Postroad Magazine, The Wolf, Ukrainian Literature: A Journal of Translation, St. Petersburg Review, and other venues.

Lutsyshyna lives in Austin, Texas, where she teaches Ukrainian and Eastern European Literature at the University of Texas.