Antonina Tymchenko
Мис доброї надії / Cape of Good Hope (2024)
Antonina Tymchenko, poet and literary scholar, Kharkiv/currently based in Poland
Antonina Tymchenko is a poet and literary scholar from Kharkiv, Ukraine, currently based in Poland. Since 2020, she has held the positions of Associate Professor of the department of Theatre Studies, Theatre Faculty, and Associate Professor of the Foreign Languages Department, Orchestral Faculty, at the Kharkiv I.P. Kotlyarevsky National University of Arts. Since 2023, she has been a guest lecturer and later adjunct of the Department of Ukrainian Studies in the Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. She is the author of more than 60 articles in Literary Studies, over 10 educational and methodological publications on teaching Ukrainian language, co-author of the monograph In Hidden Thoughts: Motifs in the Works of Volodymyr Svidzinsky (I. Smetana, A. Tymchenko, Kharkiv, 2021), several children’s books, and seven books of poetry: Напередодні (2001), Падає камінь з душі (2003), Посаг (2003), Гарячі нитки (2008), Бабинець (2008), Скрипалик (2015), and Мис доброї надії / Cape of Good Hope (2024).
Project Description
My project focuses on the publication and promotion of the book of poetry Мис доброї надії / Cape of Good Hope (2024)—a bilingual edition in Ukrainian and English. The book of poems Мис доброї надії / Cape of Good Hope is about the feeling of home and the hope of finding this home. The title generally has nothing to do with the geographical locus. Rather, what it means is a place of finding faith, hope and love, overcoming one’s fears, taking a step towards harmony, and learning to rejoice. Some poems were written before the war, and some were written during the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This is, in fact, the story of one person, the story of one perception, which can exemplify the destinies and feelings of many people. The book consists of my poems in Ukrainian, as well as a section of translations into English completed by several translators from the US, Canada, and Ukraine. I believe that now more than ever it is important to draw the attention of the whole world to Ukrainian issues, to emphasize the importance of Ukrainian culture, to remind that Europe is not standing apart from the world, but that a terrible danger is hanging over it today. English is the language of international communication, so I will be happy if my poems find a response from foreign readers and encourage their governments to continue helping my country, so that their own citizens will never experience the kind of tragedies happening now in Ukraine.