Every Day I Read, by Hwang Bo-Reum

 

Every Day I Read / Hwang Bo-Reum
trans. from the Korean by Shanna Tan
London: Bloomsbury, 2025, c2021
240 p.

This is a beautiful book on reading, by a Korean writer. It is a series of small essays on a wide variety of topics related to reading - choosing books, paying attention, finding time to read and so on. The chapter headings are like prompts that she starts from, writing a short essay on each -- some more effective than others, but I enjoyed them.

I really liked this. It felt really simple but her love of the act of reading came through. It would be a great choice to read as a group project: there are 53 chapters, so you could read the intro and then read one a week for an entire year. I would do this as a reread! I'd love to hear people's individual responses on each theme in the book. 

I found it engaging, even with the sometimes overly serious statements about reading hard, important books. The author is just 30, and most of us who read regularly will have thoughts about these issues. The short chapters were perfect for listening to as an audiobook, which I did, although I want to reread it in book format as well, to go over the chapters a little more slowly. I felt like I was listening to a fellow reader who was reaffirming the joys of a reading life - nothing new but lots to nod along to, and nice to hear the thoughts of someone who was deliberately investigating their own reading life. There are also reading suggestions sprinkled throughout, but some of them aren't available in English so you'll have to pick and choose there!

It's light but satisfying. I would suggest it, when you are in just the right mood for some reading about reading. 

All the World's a Mall

All the World's a Mall / Rinny Gremaud
trans. from the French by Luise von Flotow
Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2023, c2018.
152 p.

I picked up this slim book at my library, thinking it was an interesting premise -- the author travels to five cities, Edmonton, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and Casablanca, to visit five of the largest malls in the world. 

I was intrigued by the inclusion of the West Edmonton Mall, since I have been there myself.  That is mainly why I wanted to read it. The book began in Edmonton & I enjoyed seeing her explore places I recognized. 

The concept is that these malls are almost like cities into themselves, but she finds that they are sterile, centered on commerce & transactional relationships, lacking any real sense of life. I think that is a common response to megamalls.

She pushes herself to rapidly visit these five shopping centres, interviewing shop owners and executives. Interspersed with this, she talks about her own life & family, how tired she is, how much she misses them. 

Even though this is a short book, it felt repetitive by the end. The malls are indeed all very much alike & that sameness means she doesn't have a lot to add by the fifth one. Also, having her conclusion laid out in the first chapter means that there isn't too much discovery going on. It just felt depressing by halfway through, with the reader wondering why she was bothering to complete this project.  

So while there were some good points, especially in the first half, I did feel like the book kind of petered out. Perhaps it would have been more effective as a magazine article in a condensed form. 

REDress: Art, Action, and the Power of Presence

 

REDress / Jaime Black-Morsette, ed.
Winnipeg, MB: Portage & Main Press, c2025.
160 p.

Today's book is a feature for National Indigenous People's Day, June 21. I read this from my library, and it was a powerful read. It looks at art and how artistic projects have been used to draw attention to issues in the Indigenous community in Canada, particularly the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women campaign. (MMIW)

The title refers both to actual redress of wrongs, and to the Red Dress project, the best known project to draw attention to MMIW. This project uses red dresses, hung from trees, clotheslines, and in public spaces, to represent lives lost in this ongoing tragedy. It's a project that was begun by artist Jaime Black-Morsette, the editor of this collection. It's been installed in a variety of museums as well, and it is haunting. This book gives a bit of the history and purpose of this activist art installation.

There are also essays on other activist art projects, like beaded moccasin vamps also meant to draw attention to missing women. There are a number of ways that clothing has been used symbolically in the works included in this anthology, alongside other essays and statements from Indigenous women, Elders, grassroots community activists, artists, academics, and family members affected by the scourge of MMIW. 

There are many clear photos and imagery to support the essays, and the book is very well produced. While the theme makes it a hard read at times, it's so important, and I felt it was a great look at this topic as well as 15 years of the Red Dress Project. Definitely worth searching out. 

Voices of Freedom

 

Voices of Freedom: Contemporary Writing from Ukraine
ed. by Kateryna Kazimirova & Daryna Anastasieva
Winston-Salem, NC: 8th & Atlas Publishing, c2022.
314 p.

This is another collection of varied writing from Ukraine, published 6 months after the invasion of the country, raising money for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. It was a joint effort between 8th & Atlas Publishing and Ukraine based Craft Magazine, and highlights some of the best Ukrainian writing of the past 50 years.

It contains excerpts from 27 writers, with a slight majority of male writers represented. The pieces are essays, poems, and short stories, and as the publisher puts it, "this collection demonstrates that the desire for freedom and the struggle to achieve it is a theme that cuts across generations of Ukrainian writers, and is a central preoccupation of Ukrainian society."

I think that the collection meets this goal quite effectively. No matter whether a writer is talking about an earlier Revolution or conflict, or directly referencing the current war, the words are illuminating, powerful, and full of current meaning. I appreciated that there was a small bio of each writer prior to their work, giving some info on them and context as to their place in Ukrainian literature. There was also info given on each translator, which was another nice element, as these translators are doing a huge job sharing work into other languages - there are many names I've seen elsewhere with other newly translated work. 

There is a wide range of voices here, showing off different styles, topics and literary schools. It's a great way to become more familiar not only with new young writers but some of the older ones who've been writing throughout past years of Soviet rule and the struggles of a newly independent country. It includes some of my favourites, like Oksana Zabuzhko and Lyuba Yakimchuk, as well as some names I hadn't read before. 

Another fabulous collection to look out for if you are interested in expanding your knowledge of the writers working in Ukraine now. Their many perspectives on the past and present will also expand your understanding of the reasons behind and effects of the current war.

You can get a taste of the book by watching the book trailer, which includes 4 of the poems from the book, on YouTube: 

Ghosts in a Photograph

 

Ghosts in a Photograph / Myrna Kostash
Edmonton: NeWest Press, c2022.
304 p.

Myrna Kostash has written many books exploring both her Ukrainian heritage and wider issues of travel, identity, and immigration. This latest one looks at her own family history, starting with some family mementos, and tracing back the stories of her recent ancestors as best as she could. But it's not just about her own family, it's about wider patterns of immigration, Ukrainian history, the unsolved murder of a Ukrainian ancestor, the interaction of Ukrainian settlers and the Indigenous peoples who were on the Alberta lands they settled, and more. 

The writing is orderly but compelling. It begins by looking at each one of her grandparents separately - they had immigrated from Galicia (Ukraine) and started the Kostash family legacy. It's an interesting setup, as one half of her family were homesteaders and farmers, what you'd think of as the 'typical' Ukrainian immigran experience, but the other half were urban working-class socialists, who had settled in Edmonton. She is able to discuss many elements of the Ukrainian Canadian community, from newspapers and organizations to traditions and expectations, through this perspective. 

There is also a fair bit about her travels to Ukraine to meet with some of her distant cousins and relatives from the home village, many of whom she had barely known about. It's here that she hears family stories from previous generations, of her grandparents' siblings and parents, including that uncle who had disappeared in one of the many wars that have affected Ukraine. All of this was informative, and a fascinating personal story that feels more universal. 

The last chapter discusses the displacement of the Indigenous peoples which resulted from her family's immigration (and the much wider flood of immigration in those early years). She has written a couple of books on Indigenous history/themes, and this concern shows in this chapter as well. This chapter doesn't have the same feeling of personal resonance as the rest of the book, but it is a vital element to acknowledge and discuss. 

This is an important book from a prolific recorder of Ukrainian Canadian social history, and I'm glad to have read it. 

This book was also the winner of this year's Kobzar Book Award. Check out all the nominees and past winners for lots of fabulous Ukrainian Canadian reading. 

Unbound

 

Unbound: Ukrainian Canadians Writing Home 
ed. by Lisa Grekul & Lindy Ledohowski
TO: UofT Press, c2016.
168 p.

This month I'll be sharing many of the Ukrainian themed reads I've been examining over the last little while. I'm starting with some books written by the Ukrainian diaspora. This one is a collection of essays about being Ukrainian, and feeling (or not feeling) the connection with the ancestral past, by Canadian women writers. 

The authors included are: 

• Janice Kulyk Keefer
• Elizabeth Bachinsky
• Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
• Marusya Bociurkiw
• Erín Moure
• Daria Salamon
• Myrna Kostash

Each of these shares their experiences investigating their Ukrainian heritage and identity, in their own ways. And this list of authors is a great way to explore further writing by each, so that you may end up with a good handful of both novels and nonfiction to explore. I've read other work by most of these authors, and so was really interested to see what they'd say in this context. 

I found this collection pretty strong, with a lot of fascinating food for thought. I felt very close to the way Janice Kulyk Keefer wrote about growing up with Ukrainian family members, and the sense of lacking essential "Ukrainian-ness" herself, because she didn't speak the language. I found each of the essays had something to ponder, although I was most caught by Kulyk Keefer, Skrypuch and Bociurkiw's writing. I've read quite a bit by each of these authors so perhaps that's why they resonated with me so much. I've also just finished one of Bociurkiw's memoirs, and found similar passages in this book (I'll be sharing that one shortly). 

This is an academic book, so I was fortunate to find it via my library - it's not widely available. I enjoyed it and wondered while I was reading what these authors might have to say now, after Ukraine has seen so much more world awareness over the past two years of war and invasion. I know it's changed my own sense of relationship to my Ukrainian ancestors and identity.  

Very worth reading this one, I recommend it to anyone interested in the Ukrainian Canadian experience, but also the experience of being third or fourth generation immigrants of any kind. It gave me a lot to think over. 

The Ukraine

The Ukraine / Artem Chapeye
trans. from the Ukrainian by Zenia Tompkins
NY: Seven Stories Press, c2024.
272 p.

This is a recent translation, a collection of fiction and non-fiction by Artem Chapeye. Zenia Tompkins of the translation agency TAULT is focusing on writing by those involved in the war this year, and this is one of those works. 

Chapeye is fairly well known as a journalist, but the title short story The Ukraine is one that was published previously in the New Yorker (in 2022). This fiction plays with "The", an article that is contentious in English -- he refers to "The" Ukraine as something shallow, surface; Ukraine as seen by outsiders, in stereotypical ways. It's a strong story, which finishes this collection. 

This book is made up of 26 short pieces, many of which mix the idea of fiction/non-fiction. Some of them are reportage, of Chapeye's many trips around regions of Ukraine on his motorbike. They all engage with the idea of Ukraine, with expectations, regional differences and the idea of one country. It's a really good read. 

The only thing I found a little difficult was the mix of fiction & non-fiction, from one piece to another. I would have like to see the non-fiction first, followed by stories. However, since some are a mix of each, perhaps that was too complicated. In any case, even if it isn't clearly indicated which is which, I did find that it was fairly easy to figure out as each began. And all of them were interesting and well worth reading. 

The new intro to this collection was written by Chapeye on his phone, while on the front lines. It's a perfect intro to his works on the idea of Ukraine, on the essence of Ukrainians. Recommended. 

 

Ukraine - A Spring for the Thirsty

Ukraine: A Spring for the Thirsty / ed. by Arthur Thompson
Dupond, c2022.
252 p.

Ukraine has been on my mind even more as we head up to the 2 year mark of the Russian invasion. I have been looking for some more Ukrainian reading, and came across this collection of interviews with five publishers and four translators, all talking about the actuality of translating work from Ukrainian (mostly to English). I am interested in having more Ukrainian fiction translated, and I am interested in translation itself, so I thought I might like this. I wasn't prepared for how fascinating I found it! 

It covers a lot of ground, although it was published in 2022, so a lot of it was researched and written prior to the full scale invasion, which has changed a lot -- including how many people are now aware of Ukraine. However, there were a few mentions of it in some of the conversations. 

The book interviews four translators - Uilleam Blacker, Mark Andryczyk, Michael M. Naydan, and one of my favourites, Nina Murray. They each talk about how they got into translating Ukrainian literature, and some of their ideas about future projects. There's also discussion of the details of translating, from the actual work to finding publishers for books they'd like to translate. 

The publishers interviewed start with Osnovy Publishing in Kyiv - a long-time publisher of Ukrainian language books and classics & non-fiction. When the current owner took it over from her parents a decade ago, she found that that formula wasn't working, and has moved to kids books, photo books and mainly English language publishing. It's a fascinating discussion of the way the book scene has changed, and what they do to keep Ukrainian literature flowing. 

Then we meet Lost Horse Press, a Seattle based poetry publisher. They have a Contemporary Ukrainian Poetry Series, in which most collections are published in a dual-language format. Their series editor is an academic specializing in Slavic studies, who also does translations from Ukrainian and Russian. This conversation covers a lot about the independent publishing scene in the US and what it's like to publish poetry as a small press. Also about how bigger houses don't want to take as many risks on 'unknown' literatures like Ukrainian. Really interesting overall, and now I have a list of poetry books to read. 

Next up is Glagoslav Publications, which publishes only in digital format (my library has many of their ebooks, which is a great help to me!) They operate from Ukraine, England and the Netherlands, and publish Ukrainian works as well as Russian, Belorusian, Georgian and the like, books from the wider region. They say they prefer classics as many of those have not been shared with the English speaking world, but at the time of the interview, they noted that there isn't the support for Ukrainian translations (ie: grants and government support) as for others like Polish literature. Hopefully that is now changing! This is a long-standing publisher so it was intriguing to see how they develop and what they focus on. 

Then we have Jantar Press, based in the UK and focused on publishing English translations of Central and Eastern European literature. They have one Ukrainian translation that I'm aware of, Andriy Lyubka's Carbide. It's interesting how the same issues come up in every interview - scarcity of translators from Ukrainian, few grants or governmental push to spread Ukrainian literature. 

And finally there is Deep Vellum, based in Dallas, and much better known already than it was just a few years ago. They've published a few excellent Ukrainian books so far, by big names like Serhiy Zhadan and Andriy Kurkov. The interview goes over some of their titles and the translators they've worked with, and also talks about the mechanics of running a small press interested in translations. 

Anyhow, these are not short interviews -- they are all lengthy and interesting and bring up different perspectives and ideas. I was so enthused by the idea of new translations by the end that I certainly hope the translators that were interviewed are getting more work now! 

And one more unmissable bit of this book is the Bibliography at the end. Absolutely invaluable. As they say, there are so few translations from Ukrainian that it is actually possible to make a list of them all -- they do note that their list can't be guaranteed to be comprehensive, but it's pretty close. It lists all Ukrainian fiction that has been translated into English between 1890-2022. There will be a bunch more to add since 2022 and continuing forward, probably more than the last ten years together. But this is a fantastic resource and a great reading list for anyone aiming to read more Ukrainian literature. They also mention the small excerpts of translations that can be found in journals like Apofenie or World Literature Today, or Ukrainian Literature: a Journal of Translations. Great places to check out. 

So you can see from my very wordy review of this book that I found it so good, so thorough, so intriguing. I hope that people interested in translation in general will find this one as it gives such a good look at publishing translations from a less trendy literature. So much to think about, and also a fabulous reading list included to get you started. Highly recommended.