The Paris Literary Prize
1 appearances
-
Edition 2 (2013) Nominee
Svetlana Lavochkina
スヴぇとらな・ラヴォチキナ
Svetorana Lavochkina
Profile
- Gender
- Female
- Born
- 1973 （Zaporizhzhia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union）
- Nationality
- Ukraine
- Languages
- English, Ukrainian, Russian
- Religion
- Judaism
- Residence History
- Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine → Leipzig, Germany
Career
- Occupations
- Writer, Literary translator, English teacher
- Memberships
- Jewish community in Leipzig
Education
| Institution | Faculty | Department | Degree | Period | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pedagogical college (languages) (details unknown) | — | — | — | — | Ukraine |
Pedagogical college (languages) (details unknown)
Country:
Ukraine
Recorded to have received English-language education in childhood
Awards
| Year | Award | Work | Category | Organization | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Shakespeare and Company literary competition (Paris) | Dam Duchess (novella; later part of the novel Zap) | — | Shakespeare and Company (Paris) | 準優勝 / Second prize |
Shakespeare and Company literary competition (Paris)
2013
Work:
Dam Duchess (novella; later part of the novel Zap)
Organization:
Shakespeare and Company (Paris)
Result:
準優勝 / Second prize
Awards & Nominations
Works
Major Works
Dam Duchess
2017 NovellaOriginally published as a novella and later incorporated into the novel Zap. The piece addresses personal and local memory, Jewish family history and migration, and questions of language and identity.
memorymigrationJewish identitylanguage
Adaptations
- [Book (translation)] Die rote Herzogin (2022)
Translations
- German (translated by Diana Feuerbach: Die rote Herzogin, 2022)
Zap
2017 NovelSet in Zaporizhzhia (spelled Zap), the novel depicts life in a provincial town in the 1970s where Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish cultures intersect. Through anecdotes about Pushkin and family stories, it portrays the dreariness and bourgeois stagnation of the Brezhnev era with humor and melancholy.
multicultural coexistencedepiction of anti-Semitismprovincial declineshattered dreams
Adaptations
- [Book (translation)] Puschkins Erben (2019)
Translations
- German (translated by Diana Feuerbach: Puschkins Erben, 2019)
Carbon. Songs of Crafts
2020 Novel in verseA long-form work in verse that weaves themes of labor, locality, memory, and the impacts of war and mining. It includes perspectives on Donetsk and the people of eastern Ukraine.
laborlocalitywar and its effectsmemory
Adaptations
- [Book (translation)] Carbon. Ein Lied von Donezk (2024)
Translations
- German (translated by Diana Feuerbach: Carbon. Ein Lied von Donezk, 2024)
Bibliography
- Dam Duchess (novella). Whiskey Tit, Rochester 2017, ISBN 978-0-9996215-5-4
- Zap (novel). Whiskey Tit, Rochester 2017, ISBN 978-0-9967646-7-4
- Carbon. Songs of Crafts (novel in verse). Lost Horse Press, Sandpoint 2020, ISBN 978-1-73334-004-5
Adaptations
- Die rote Herzogin (German translation of Dam Duchess, translated by Diana Feuerbach, 2022)
- Puschkins Erben (German translation of Zap, translated by Diana Feuerbach, 2019)
- Carbon. Ein Lied von Donezk (German translation of Carbon, translated by Diana Feuerbach, 2024)
Translations by Author
- A Violin from the Other Riverside (participated in English translation of Dmytro Kremin), Lost Horse Press 2023
- Apricots of Donbas (participated in English translation of Lyuba Yakimchuk; new bilingual edition), Lost Horse Press 2015
Translations of Works
- German translations (multiple works translated by Diana Feuerbach)
Style & Themes
- Literary Style
- concise, lyrical prosemultilingual and transnational perspectivea voice combining humor and melancholy
- Recurring Motifs
- images of the Dnieper/rivermigration and belongingfamily and heritagelanguage and translation
Legacy
As an English-language writer from Ukraine, she has played a role in bringing Ukrainian regionalism and Jewish roots to anglophone and German-speaking readers. German translations have increased her visibility in Germany, and she is regarded as an important voice on migration and identity.
Quotes
-
Lavochkina traces the mood of the Brezhnev era—its dreariness and bourgeois stagnation—and turns it through humour.
Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (review by Christiane Pöhlmann) (2020)
Trivia
- At age 26 she moved to Germany with her husband as a Jewish quota refugee.
- Her literary work is primarily in English.
- She works as an English teacher at a Waldorf school in Leipzig.
- Her novella 'Dam Duchess' won second prize in a 2013 literary competition run by the Paris bookstore Shakespeare and Company.