Edinburgh project supports young Ukrainian writers

Yurii Popovych helped with translations of the poems for the new book Tiny Flames: Voices from Ukraine

A group of young people from Ukraine have battled power cuts and internet blackouts to share their stories of living through the war there.

Tiny Flames: Voices from Ukraine is a project co-founded by University of Edinburgh graduate Alice Eaves and Kyiv-based Prof Lilia Miroshnychenko.

Five Ukrainian poets, including one living in Russian-occupied Ukraine, and five translation students worked through adverse conditions to create a collection of poems now published in Scotland.

Organisers of a reading in Kyiv - which was live streamed to the collection's recent launch event in Edinburgh - had a back-up plan in place to move quickly to a bunker if there was a missile attack.

Alice Eaves co-founded the project with a professor in Kyiv

The Ukraine Poetry Project was born after Prof Miroshnychenko, of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, was in Edinburgh last January to deliver a lecture on students' experiences since Russia's invasion in 2022.

Ms Eaves, who now works on community projects in Edinburgh and Lancashire, said: "It was incredibly powerful hearing the stories of resilience of the students and staff.

"Lilia also showed imagery of the university being bombed and of the English department destroyed."

The illustrated collection was put together by a project involving people in Scotland and Ukraine

Poem for November

I witness autumn again

though last November

the way seemed insurmountable

Father says

this winter will be harsh

I must preserve and bottle

Likewise

I write poems for November

in July

By Bohdan Bratus and translated by Yurii Popovych and Olivia Thomakos.

'Lives still valued'

Ms Eaves, who holds a Masters in creative writing from Edinburgh and work has included as an art director, said she wanted to do something to help.

She suggested to Prof Miroshnychenko publishing Ukrainian poetry in Scotland.

Ms Eaves said: "I couldn't house any of them and I wasn't financially in a position to send a lot of money for aid.

"This felt like a really unique way to be able to use my skills to help other people."

She added: "The feedback I have got from Ukrainian students is that it has been really nice to see their voice, their interests and everything they do in their every day lives still valued."

Kateryna Shevchenko said the war was 'exhausting'

One of the project's translators Yurii Popovych, 22, said he felt a duty to be involved.

He said: "I am not fighting the enemy, I am not literally protecting my own people, but I still feel the need to do something.

"This project gave me such an opportunity."

Fellow students have welcomed the publication of the book.

They said the war continued to take a huge toll on young people and others' lives.

Kateryna Shevchenko, 22, said: "It is very exhausting.

"I want to be able to go to bed at night with confidence and know that a missile will not hit my house while I’m asleep, I want to travel the world with my partner, I want my little sister to have memories from her youth that are not associated with war."

Nataliia Zuieva followed the creation of the new book

Nataliia Zuieva, 24, said she had followed the story of creation of Tiny Flames.

She clings to a hope there will peace soon.

She added: "At the same time, the people I know are perishing.

"A young man from my hometown, just a few years younger than me, was killed in combat last year. His name was Yaroslav Savchenko; he was kind and loved theatre.

"My friend’s fiancé died last summer when defending us in the east. There are many more people to mention."

Copies of Tiny Flames are in The Scottish Poetry Library, The National Library of Scotland and The British Library. It is also being sold in bookshops in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling.