Volodymyr Tymchuk
Born on January 11, 1979, in Zakarpattia, Volodymyr Tymchuk is Volodymyr Tymchuk is a Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, and lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who participates in the Russian-Ukrainian war. He was a senior teacher at the Hetman Petro Sahaidachnyi National Army Academy and is a Candidate in Technical Sciences. Tymchuk, who began his literary career with his debut poetry collection «Vesniani kolovoroty» (“Spring Whirlpools”) (2009), has published over a dozen collections of poetry, poetry anthologies and books of prose in the Ukrainian language. His first collection of poems also included his translations from Slavic languages, featuring poems by the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. His first collection of short stories and essays, «Slovodiem» (“Word-Acted”), was published in 2014. In 2015, on the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Russia (Soviet “Union” at that time) commemorated the victims of the deportation to remind the world that occupiers and their collaborators were still committing crimes against humanity in the annexed Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, and the idea of the art project «Bakhchysarai. 2021» was born in the city of Lviv. Volodymyr Tymchuk and authors like S. Kokche, Maye Safet, six translators, and four artists prepared a unique edition of the first bilingual book written in the Ukrainian and Сrimean Tatar languages in three months, which was presented with a question “Do we, the authors, expect a presentation in the liberated Ukrainian Bakhchysarai in six years?” He also authored «To Burn and Fire, to Outlive and Overcome!» (2016), the first collection of war poems. In 2017 Tymchuk created another significant project called «Ukraine and Lithuania: At the Crossroads of Histories and Values» based on the postcards by Vidmantas Kudarauskas from Lithuania and First Day Covers from Ukrposhta and Lietuvos paštas for the parallel placement and comparisons of the historical events of two ancient European nations who valued freedom in their expressions. He edited «Verlaine and the Song» (2017), an anthology with one French poem and 40 versions of its Ukrainian poetic interpretations, and «Opus Khody. № 2399» (“March Opus”) (2018) with his Lithuanian friend Juozas Valiušaitis in just 69 hours and 21 minutes, which was challenged to the Guinness Book of World Records for creating the fastest book from concept to completion. Between 2018 and 2022, he worked on writing, translating, editing, and publishing several literary projects, such as the translations of war poems of the 1st World war poets from English, German, Hungarian; the translations of Christmas poems from Byelorussian, Latvian, Italian, Portugal, and other cultures, and the key anthology «In principio erat Verbum: Ukrainian poems of war» about first 100 days of Life from February 24, 2022, in Ukrainian and French. During this period, he also authored: «The B.a:S-i)l’s #light» (2018) «Vidchuty misto stopoyu (z Toboyu» – (2019), «In Angels’ Order» (2019), «East … Sunrise» (2020), «Azov Crossed» (2020), «From Cossack Hetmanate’s infinity» (2021). His awards and honors include the “Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Prize” for the best coverage of military themes in literature and art (2016), the “Markiyan Shashkevych Poetic Nomination for Lviv Regional Cultural Prize” (2020), and “Volyanik-Shwabinskyi Literary and Scientific Award” (2022). He is the translator of “Love Letters to Ukraine from Uyava” (2023) by Kalpna Singh-Chitnis, forthcoming from River Paw Press, and working on his next poetry collection, «Те слово, що зцілює» (“Ukraine: The Healing Word”) Website: http://www.volodymyrtymchuk.wordpress.com FACEBOOK TWITTER
What People Say
Volodymyr Tymchuk has two missions in his life: the art of literature and military art. He is a gifted Ukrainian poet and translator, and at the same time, he is a lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who participates in the Russian-Ukrainian war. His poetry represents the best virtues of a warrior, it is filled with the energy of struggle and valor. He is also active as a cultural diplomat, developing projects that bring the voices of Ukrainian poets to the world, for example, #WorldPoetryDayForUkraine.
~ Olena O’Lear
The war in East Ukraine revealed the neglected facets of Ukrainian art dedicated to war heroism, valor, and urgency. Volodymyr Tymchuk took up this artistic challenge with his poetical works familiar and unfamiliar to him, inspired by the defenders of Ukraine, as well as his translations of the pearls of military poetry for the world poetic treasury. A number of trend poems written by the author before 2014 are published by Astrolabe Publishing.
~ Oleh Feschowetz
Volodymyr Tymchuk 