Born on 23 august 1974 in Starobilsk of Voroshilovgrad region, Ukrainian SSR. Ukrainian poet, prose writer, translator and public activist.
Serhiy Zhadan’s literary works have received numerous national and international awards; have been translated into many languages, which made him one of the most renowned Ukrainian writers. Furthermore, Serhiy Zhadan is an active contributor to literary life in Ukraine and participant of synthetic art projects.
In 1991, he was one of the organizers of the Kharkiv neo-futurist literary group “Chervona Fira”.
Since 2000, he has been a Vice-President of the Ukrainian Writers’ Association.
During the Orange Revolution, Zhadan was a commandant of the tent campus in Kharkiv.
He is famous for his critical expressions and publications against Kharkiv officials: Dobkin and Kernes.
He has expressed leanings towards anarchists on multiple occasions; many of his works contain ideas of the ‘left’.
In 2011, he arranged a campaign condemning a law “On Protection of Public Moral”.
Active participant of the Kharkiv Euromaidan.
He advocates for the release of illegally imprisoned in Russia Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov.
Bibliography:
Poetry collections:
General Judas (Kyiv: Ukrainskyi Pysmennyk, 1995).
Book of Quotations: Poems for Lovers (Kyiv: Smoloskyp, 1995).
Pepsi (Kharkiv: Maidan, 1998).
Ballads on War and Reconstruction: New Poetry Collection (Lviv: Кальварія, 2001).
History of Culture at the Turn of This Century (Kyiv: Krytyka, 2003).
Maradona: New Book of Poems (Kharkiv: Folio, 2007): second part contains translations of Marcin Świetlicki, Charles Bukowski, Paul Celan.
Ethiopia (Kharkiv: Folio, 2009): includes “Comments” Chapter with 5 stories.
Gunshot and Knife (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2012).
Life of Maria: Book of Poems and Translations (Chernivtsi: Meridian Czernowitz; Books ХХІ, 2015): incudes translations from Rainer Maria Rilke and Czesław Miłosz.
Knights Tampler: New Poems, 2015—2016 (Chernivtsi: Meridian Czernowitz; Books ХХІ, 2016).
Novels:
Depeche Mode (Kharkiv: Folio, 2004).
Anarchy in the UKR (Kharkiv: Folio, 2005).
Voroshilovgrad (Kharkiv: Folio, 2010).
Mesopotamia (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2014): a novel in stories and 30 poems.
Orphanage (Chernivtsi: Meridian Czernowitz, 2017).
Stories, essays:
Big Mac (Kyiv: Krytyka, 2003): 6 stories.
Democratic Youth Anthem (Kharkiv: Folio, 2006): 6 stories.
Three-cylinder Engine of Love (with Yuri Andrukhovych and Liubko Deresh; Kharkiv: Folio, 2007): Zhadan’s part is “NATO”, which includes 8 essay stories.
Big Mac and Other Stories (Kharkiv: Folio, 2011): 15 stories.
Ward #7 (with Lada Luzina; Kharkiv: Folio, 2013): Zhadan’s story is “And Mom Hid It in Her Hair” (2012).
Big Mac. Reboot (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2015): 20 stories.
When Heat Subsides (Ivano-Frankivsk: Lileya-NV, 2015; ‘werewolf’–book: under one cover with the collection of Mirek Bodnar “Bricolage”): columns for 2010—2013, published on “tsn.ua”.
DNK (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2016): author of the idea and of one story.
Selected editions:
The Very Best Poems, Psychedelic Stories of Fighting and Other Bullshit. Selected Poems 1992—2000 (Donetsk: Kalmius, 2000).
Book of Quotations (Kharkiv: Folio, 2005): collections: “Book of Quotations”, “Pepsi”, “Ballads on War and Reconstruction”, out-of-collection poems, vertep “Merry Christmas, Jesus Christ!”, new collection “U. S. S. R.”.
Capital (collection) (Kharkiv: Folio, 2006): “Depeche Mode”, “Anarchy in the UKR”, collections “Democratic Youth Anthem” and “Book of Quotations” (2005).
Big Mac (Kyiv: Krytyka, 2007): reprint of collections “Big Mac” and “History of Culture at the Turn of This Century” with addition of two new stories.
Lili Marleen: A Book of New and Selected Poems (Kharkiv: Folio, 2009): poems from collections of 1995—2009, a new cycle “Lesbians” and four stories.
Farewell of Slavianka (Kharkiv: Folio, 2011): poetry collections of 1995—2009 (without translations and stories).
Gospels and Spirituals (spiritual chants of the Northern Black Sea Coast Rasta) (Kharkiv: Folio, 2012): miniature book, selected poems from books of 1995—2010.
Dynamо Kharkiv (Kyiv: А-BА-BА-HА-LА-МА-HА, 2014): selected poems of 1992—2014; in third edition (2015) poems of 1992—2015.
30 Arguments for the Existence of God (and 29 Against) (Kyiv: Laurus, 2014): selected poems of 1993—2013.
God Sympathizes with Outsiders: 10 Books of Poetry (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2015): poetry collections of 1995—2014 (without translations, stories and vertep).
Swim, Fish, Swim (Chernivtsi: Chorni Vivtsi; Books ХХІ, 2016): art book, individual poem’s edition; illustrated by Khrystyna Lukashchuk.
Translations:
Children of Rainer and Maria: Anthology of Modern Viennese Poetry (Kharkiv: Maidan, 2004),
Paul Celan. Light Compulsion (Chernivtsi: Meridian Czernowitz; Books ХХІ, 2014).
Compiler:
Two Cities. Anthology of the Kharkiv Poetry / Zwei Stadte. Anthology of the Nuremberg Poetry (Kharkiv: Maidan, 2000) — together with Jürgen Bauer.
Kharkiv Hotels. Anthology of new Kharkiv literature (Kharkiv: Folio, 2008).
Decameron. 10 Ukrainian Prosers of the Past 10 Years (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2010).
Metamorphoses. 10 Ukrainian Poets of the Past 10 Years (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2011).
Writers on Football. Literary National Team of Ukraine (Kharkiv: Book Club “Family Leisure Club”, 2011)”
Total Football (Kyiv: Grani-T, 2012).
Multimedia projects:
“Depeche Mode” Audiobook (Dnipropetrovsk: “Аrt-Vertep” — “Lift” Publishing House, 2007).
“Choir of Mongolian Policemen” CD Collection (“Gospel and Spirituals”), (Dnipropetrovsk: “Аrt-Vertep” — “Lift” Publishing House”, 2007).
Radio-Chanson, or Radio Chanson: Eight Stories about Yura Zoifer, (brochure + CD, Dnipropetrovsk: Art-Vertep: LIFT, 2007), Theater studio “Arabesky”, Kharkiv Klezmer Band and Misko Barbara. CD-book, soundtrack to a show of the same name of the Kharkiv theater “Arabesky” based on Serhiy Zhadan’s poems.
Army Sports Club, Serhiy Zhadan and Dogs in Outer Space (Dnipropetrovsk: LIFT Publishing House, 2008).
Weapon of the Proletariat, Serhiy Zhadan and Dogs in Outer Space (2012).
Fight for Her, Zhadan and Dogs band. — Chernivtsi: Meridian Czernowitz; Books ХХІ, 2014. — 108 p.; CD.
Dogs, Zhadan and Dogs band (2016).
Where is Your Line?, Mannerheim Line band (2018).
Translations of Serhiy Zhadan’s works:
“History of Culture at the Turn of This Century” — Russia, 2003; Poland, 2005; Germany, 2005.
“Big Mac” — Poland, 2005; Russia, 2009; Czech Republic, 2011; Germany, 2011.
“Depeche Mode” — Russia, 2005; Poland, 2006; Belarus, 2006; Germany, 2007; Lithuania, 2008; Italy, 2009; Hungary, 2010; USA, 2013, Sweden, 2014.
“Anarchy in the UKR” — Poland, 2007; Germany, 2007; Bulgaria, 2007 (partly translated) Russia, 2008; Belarus, 2012; France, 2016; Norway, 2017.
“Democratic Youth Anthem” — Poland, 2008; Germany, 2009; Russia, 2009.
“The Percentage of Suicides among Clowns” — Germany, 2009; Poland, 2009.
“Voroshilovgrad” — Ukraine, 2011, 2012 (in Russian); Germany, 2012; Russia, 2012; Hungary, 2012; Poland, 2013; France, 2013; Belarus, 2016; Italy, 2016; Latvia, 2016; USA, 2016.
“Mesopotamia” — Poland, 2014; Germany, 2015.
“Ukrainian Airlines: Selected Poems” — Ukraine, 2015 (in Belarusian).
“To Run without Stopping” — Austria, 2016.
“Gunshot and Knife” — Russia, 2016.
“Everything Depends on Us Only: Selected Poems” — Latvia, 2016 (in Russian).
“Why I’m Not on Social Media — Poems from the War” — Germany, 2016.
