Nucleus, a poetry collection by Svetlana Ischenko, published by Ronsdale Press.
Nucleus takes readers through a journey that traverses space (Ukraine to Canada) and language (Ukrainian to English) to arrive at an arresting and beautiful synthesis. The early poems are translated from Ischenko’s mother tongue—Ukrainian—and are set in Ukraine as well. However, once Ischenko arrives in Canada and learns English, her poems become hybrids—at first written in Ukrainian and quickly translated into English, and later written directly in English. At the same time, her settings and themes reflect this same process of hybridization: she draws her new life in Canada through the eyes of a newcomer, and conversely, examines her homeland across a distance of many years, thousands of kilometres and two tongues.
The poems shift, in an elegant choreography, from mythology to family life in North Vancouver (where she now lives) to her evolving identity to love to memories of Ukraine to the contemplation of nature. In “Nucleus”, the title poem, Ischenko draws together three experiences of nuclear disaster (one from a Hiroshima survivor, one from a Chernobyl survivor and her own experience in Ukraine) in a powerful elixir that celebrates resilience and prays for hope.
— Steve Neufeld earned his MFA in Creative Writing from UBC in 2013. Since then, he’s been writing for film/TV, teaching high school and writing fiction, but his greatest achievements are pancake-related. He lives in North Vancouver (which sits on stolen Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh land) with his partner and son.
You can read Steve Neufeld's story in Issue 300 Summer Fiction 2024. Order the issue now:
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