Celebrating Luba Panchenko

My short story Bucha Spring was recently published in Fusion Magazine and I’m grateful for this opportunity to spotlight an amazing Ukrainian artist who sadly is no longer with us but whose brave spirit and artworks will be celebrated and passed on to future generations. 

Like so many of us, I am thinking of Ukraine and its people as they courageously battle for their right to live as they choose in an independent Ukraine. There are so many stories that are and will be written about this brutal war, but Luba Panchenko’s legacy needs to be shared and celebrated. I came across her name in a short post on social media last spring and the more I learned, the more taken I was with her life story and incredible artwork.  

Sharing my Author’s Note below and the link to my short story: https://www.fusionmagazine.org/bucha-spring/

 

Bucha Spring, 1994. Pencil, watercolor, paper. Source: Liubov Panchenko — Recovery Art Album. Publisher: Oleksandr Savchuk, 2021.

My Author's Note on Bucha Spring:

This fictionalized short story is dedicated to the memory of Ukrainian artist and designer Liubov (Luba) Panchenko, who endured a month of isolation and starvation in her basement while her hometown of Bucha was under brutal Russian occupation. She survived the occupation, but died on April 30, 2022, when her heart gave out. During the Soviet era, her artwork was censored due to its focus on Ukrainian symbolism and folk culture. She was not allowed to exhibit or publish her work. She was a member of the Ukrainian Sixtiers dissident movement, that advocated for freedom of cultural and creative expression. 

In her earlier days, Luba Panchenko loved to wear her hair in one long braid.

While researching Luba's story, I came across some excellent sources for those interested in learning more about her life and creative output. She was a rebel and she defied her family to pursue her passion as an artist. She credited her grandfather and mother for instilling in her a deep love for Ukraine. During the 1960s, many of her fellow dissident friends would gather at her house to sing Ukrainian Christmas carols, fundraise to help other dissidents in need and plan Ukrainian cultural and literary events. This was dangerous during the Soviet era and many of her friends were exiled, arrested and some like the artist Alla Horska, were killed. 

Here's a nice piece about Luba Panchenko in Daily Art Magazine: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/lyubov-panchenko/

And for my Ukrainian-speaking readers, a short article in Ukrainian: https://gazeta.ua/articles/ukraine-newspaper/_lyubov-panchenko-misyac-goloduvala/1091644

While writing my story, it was important for me to try to imagine her perspective as much as possible and I was thrilled when I found a video where I heard her speak about her artworks! What a gift! And check out her incredible fashion designs: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz-4ULkVlLk

A few more of her artworks: 

Although there is no published hardcover book about Luba Panchenko at present, there is a wonderful digital book that the publisher hopes to publish in hard copy when possible. It is available in a PDF so if anyone is interested, please let me know in the comments and I will email it.

Welcome

My website was hacked some time ago and I'm finally getting back to recreating my blog. I'll be reposting some of my earlier blogs here in my new space on Blogger.

October 2012 

It’s been an amazing couple of years for me on the literary front, and after some of life’s unexpected delays, I am very excited and happy to announce that my short story collection Crossing The Border has been released by Little Creek Books (an imprint of Jan-Carol Publishing, who also publish an awesome monthly magazine called Voice for Women: http://www.voicemagazineforwomen.com/).

This collection has been years in the making with the first seeds planted back when I was working on my master’s in Creative Writing at Columbia College Chicago’s Fiction Writing Department.  I tucked away some of my writings in the drawer, not certain if I would revisit them in the future.  Sometime after leaving Chicago, I found an editorial job in Kyiv and moved there, wanting to experience the excitement and reality of an independent Ukraine.

I first set foot in Ukraine in the summer of 1990 when it was still part of the Soviet Union. It was a fast-paced, exhilarating and emotional three-week trip but I knew I wanted to go back. I knew I wanted to live in Kyiv as the tour bus zipped us past hilly slopes and golden-domed churches. I knew I wanted to live there when the bus dropped us off impromptu at a rally at what was then called October Revolution Square (later renamed Independence Square). Hundreds of people were rallying for an independent Ukraine. The stores were bare but the people I met on the streets were welcoming and curious about Westerners and went out of their way to show us the sights, some even inviting me and my traveling companions into their homes.  I loved the sense of 11th-century history embedded in the architecture and streets of Kyiv as I have long been fascinated by ancient and early medieval times.

Six years later I was living in Kyiv and my writing mainly focused on jotting down notes and ideas in my journal and writing some travel and short nonfiction pieces.  When I moved back to the United States nearly four years later, I started writing new pieces and revisiting a few of the old stories I had tucked away. Crossing The Border was finally on its way and I am thrilled and a little nervous about sharing it with the world.

I look forward to your comments and reviews, and most of all, the opportunity to share and exchange thoughts and ideas…..

Until then,

Ksenia