Ihor Mysiak, "The Factory" (Atthis Arts, 2024)

Summary

The Factory (Atthis Arts, LLC, 2024) by poet and prose writer Ihor Mysiak, translated by Yevheniia Dubrova and Hanna Leliv, was published in its original Ukrainian in 2022, dedicated to the author's friend who was killed by Russia while defending his home. The following spring, Ihor himself was also killed by Russia, and a global community came together to further share his deeply poetic and insightful words. Atmospheric and meditative, Mysiak's staccato Ukrainian storytelling paints an evocative tale of a motley and rather strange gathering of men who restore a broken-down factory aside an old, forgotten village to build and sell electronic machines assured to cause happiness. Though smoothly woven between pleasantries and mishaps, often calming, and frequently amusing, there is a deeply cutting edge of satire, fury, and rebellion to this meandering tale. In all of this, The Factory builds its own modern parable to remind the reader of love, community, and the joys of every single day, and the need-the urgency-to protect them.

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Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed is a Preceptor in Ukrainian at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures (Indiana University, 2022). She also holds a Ph.D. in American literature (Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2007). Her research interests include contested memory, with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. She is a review editor of H-Ukraine. Since 2016, she has been a host on the New Books Network (Ukrainian Studies, East European Studies, and Literary Studies channels).
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