Oksana Shchur

Based on such references as Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko and Museum of Unconditional Surrender by Dubravka Ugrešić, this long-read essay is a journey into the mind of a new Ukrainian woman. 

In early March of 2022, the female narrator had to leave everything behind and cross the Western border of Ukraine. She had a job, a career, a home, some love stories and a few attempts to build a family behind her. Now she is a 35-year-old woman in a new country; what she has is a CV and one hand-luggage bag. In the European Union she meets lots of Ukrainians: emigrants, seasonal workers, students with unfinished PhD-theses, as well as many refugees. Poets, playwrights, film producers, professors. As a rule they are female. Often with children. Also, with cats or dogs. Sometimes their mothers are in tow. Before they turned 35 they were on some kind of path. Now they all have to start from scratch and create a new future.  

In this reflection the author uses her personal experience and also her communications and networking with Ukrainian artists and writers in Vienna and, more widely, the EU. Alongside these fresh and current impressions, the author’s rich professional background is important–– for a period of 15 years she was deeply connected with Ukrainian art, literature and the publishing world, and knows their problems rather well.