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Serhiy Zhadan

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Serhiy Zhadan
Сергій Жадан
Zhadan in 2022
Born
Сергій Вікторович Жадан

(1974-08-23) 23 August 1974 (age 51)
Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast, Soviet Ukraine
Alma materH.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University
Occupations
  • Poet
  • novelist
  • translator
Musical career
GenresSka
InstrumentVocals
Years active2008–present
Member ofZhadan i Sobaky
Signature

Serhiy Viktorovych Zhadan (Ukrainian: Сергій Вікторович Жадан, Ukrainian pronunciation: [serˈɦii̯ ˈʋiktɔrɔwɪt͡ʃ ʒɐˈdan]; born 23 August 1974) is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, musician, translator, and social activist. He has been a member of the ska band Zhadan i Sobaky since 2008.

In early June 2024, Zhadan posted on his Facebook page that he had joined the 13th "Khartia" Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, which has been in active combat.[1][2]

Life and career

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Early life and studies

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Zhadan was born in Starobilsk, Luhansk Oblast, in Ukraine. He graduated from H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University in 1996 with a thesis on the work of Mykhaylo Semenko and Ukrainian futurist writers of the 1920s. He then spent three years as a graduate student of philology and taught Ukrainian and world literature from 2000 to 2004. Since then, he has worked as a freelance writer.

Writing

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He began writing in 1990, drawing upon his homeland, such as the industrial landscapes of eastern Ukraine, as in his 2010 novel Voroshilovgrad.[3] Based on the book, Yaroslav Lodygin wrote and directed the 2018 film The Wild Fields.

Zhadan has published 12 books of poetry and 7 novels, and he has won more than a dozen literary awards. In 2008, the Russian translation of his novel Anarchy in the UKR made the shortlist of the National Bestseller Prize. It was also a contender for Book of the Year at the 2008 Moscow International Book Exhibition. In 2009, he won the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Prize. Voroshylovhrad won him the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year award in 2010,[4] the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature in Switzerland in 2014,[5] the BBC Ukrainian Book of the Decade award in 2014,[4] and the Brücke Berlin Prize. His 2014 book Mesopotamia won the Angelus Award in 2015,[6][7] the Award of the President of Ukraine, and Ukrainian Book of the Year in 2016.

From 2016 to 2019, Zhadan was a member of the Taras Shevchenko National Award Committee of Ukraine.[8]

Zhadan in 2015

Zhadan has translated poetry from German, English, Belarusian, and Russian, from such poets as Paul Celan and Charles Bukowski. His own works have been translated into German, English, Dutch, Estonian, French, Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Georgian, Belarusian, Russian,[9] Hungarian, Armenian, and Czech.

His translated poetry has appeared in Ambit,[10] Asymptote,[11] Blackbird,[12] Gulf Coast,[13] The Manchester Review,[14] Modern Poetry in Translation,[15] Poetry International,[16] Poetry International Web,[17] Plume,[18] The Threepenny Review,[19] Tin House,[20] and Virginia Quarterly Review.[21]

In August 2024, Zhadan was featured reading a poem in a TV commercial for McDonald's in Ukraine.[22]

Music

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In 2008, Zhadan began collaborating with the band Sobaky v Kosmosi (Ukrainian: Собаки в космосі), who later changed their name to Zhadan i Sobaky (Ukrainian: Жадан і собаки). As of 2026, he has released five studio albums with them.

In 2021, recorded a full-length album titled Fokstroty with Yuriy Gurzhy, a Ukrainian-born, Berlin-based musician, DJ, and producer. In 2023, the duo followed it up with Skovorodance.

Political activism and military service

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Serhiy Zhadan at the "Rock for Change" rally in Kharkiv, 2013

Zhadan's involvement in Ukrainian politics began while he was still a student. In 1992, he was one of the organizers of the Kharkiv-based neo-futuristic literary group "the Red Thistle".[23][24] He participated in the 2004 Orange Revolution.[citation needed] He has repeatedly expressed sympathy for anarchists.[25]

In 2013, he was a member of the coordination council of Euromaidan Kharkiv.[26][27] In the aftermath of the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, he was assaulted by pro-Russian demonstrators outside the Kharkiv administration building.[28]

When asked, Zhadan has described his political commitments in the following manner:

You're often described as 'left-wing'—is that accurate? I have never described myself as left-wing, but I'm always being told I belong among the left-wingers! It's all nonsense. Dividing people into left and right in modern Ukraine is not very constructive. I am a citizen of Ukraine who loves his country and tries to help.

Would you say you are a 'nationalist' or a 'patriot'? I'm not a nationalist. A patriot—yes. I'm a patriot and I love my country, my homeland. But the term 'patriot' in modern Ukraine and modern Europe has various connotations. I encounter this in Europe and America, where some members of the public equate 'patriot' and 'nationalist', or take a 'patriot' to be a conservative right-winger. But this is very inaccurate. In Ukraine, 'patriot' is a synonym for a person who is on the side of our soldiers on the frontlines—someone who supports our country.

Why wouldn't you call yourself a nationalist? Because I have known Ukraine's nationalist movement since the 1980s. I have a lot of friends in the nationalist movement, but the ideas of nationalism do not correspond to my vision of Ukraine. Ukraine is much more complicated and much less clear-cut.[29]

After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Zhadan remained in Kharkiv, helping to organize humanitarian aid.[30] In June 2024, he posted on his Facebook page that he had joined the 13th Khartiia Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine.[1][2][31]

Critical reception

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Zhadan at the 2017 Odesa International Film Festival

Rostislav Melnikov and Yuriy Tsaplin of the New Literary Review wrote in 2007:

Zhadan's prose is so poetic, his free verse so prosaic. It is difficult to assign a genre to his work: memoir, travelogue, timely or untimely meditation — or a mixture of all these, centered on the themes my generation and our epoch.[32]

Kirill Ankudinov, writing for Vzglyad.ru in June 2008, said:

There is no summarizing the spicy, hot, sweet, vicious improvisations of Serhiy Zhadan — this is verbal jazz. When you read him, you fear for contemporary Russian literature: of those now writing in the Russian language, there is none among them who is so infernally free (and above all, free from "writerly" prose, from the tendency to "produce an impression").[33]

In March 2022, the Polish Academy of Sciences nominated Zhadan for the Nobel Prize in Literature.[30]

In July 2024, Zhadan received the title of honorary professor of philosophy from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich, Germany.[22]

Works

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Poetry

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  • Quotations (Цитатник), (1995)
  • General Judas (Генерал Юда), (1995)
  • Pepsi (Пепсі), (1998)
  • The Very Best Poems, Psychedelic Stories of Fighting and Other Bullshit: Selected Poems, 1992–2000 (Вибрані поезії), (2000)
  • Ballads about War and Reconstruction (Балади про війну і відбудову), (2001)
  • The History of Culture at the Beginning of This Century (Історія культури початку століття), (2003)
  • UkSSR (У.Р.С.Р.), (2004)
  • Maradona (Марадона), (2007)
  • Ethiopia (Ефіопія), (2009)
  • Lili Marlene (Лілі Марлен), (2009)
  • Firearms and Knives (Вогнепальні й ножові), (2012)
  • Life of Maria (Життя Марії), (2015)
  • Templars (Тамплієри), (2016)
  • Antenna (Aнтена), (2018)
  • List of Ships (Список кораблів), (2019)
  • Psalm to Aviation (Псалом авіації), (2021)
  • What We Live for, What We Die For: Selected Poems (2019)
  • How Fire Descends: New and Selected Poems (2023)

Prose

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  • Big Mac (Біґ Мак; short story collection), (2003)
  • Depeche Mode (Депеш Мод), (2004); Glagoslav Publications Limited, (2013), ISBN 978-1-909156-84-5
  • Anarchy in the UKR, (2005)
  • Anthem of Democratic Youth (Гімн демократичної молоді), (2006)
  • Big Mac² (Біґ Мак²; short story collection), (2007)
  • Voroshilovgrad (Ворошиловград), (2010); Deep Vellum Publishing, (2016), ISBN 978-1-941920-30-5
  • Big Mac and Other Stories (Біґ Мак та інші історії), (2011)
  • Mesopotamia (Месопотамія; nine stories and thirty poems), (2014)
  • The Orphanage (Інтернат), (2017)

Translated into English

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Awards

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See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Zhadan confirmed that he had joined the ranks of the National Guard". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 6 June 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  2. 1 2 ""Khartia". What is known about the National Guard brigade where Serhiy Zhadan went to serve". Ukrainian News Agency (in Ukrainian). 6 June 2024. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  3. ↑ "Masterpieces of Ukrainian literature: 7 works (or more) you can read in English". Ukraine World. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year 2014 and Book of the Decade winners named". The Financial. 13 December 2014. Archived from the original on 14 December 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "2014". fondation-janmichalski.com. Retrieved 16 May 2026.
  6. 1 2 "Serhij Żadan!!!". angelus.com.pl. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  7. 1 2 Булкина, Инна. Кроме Нобеля: Ангелус и другие [Beyond Nobel: Angelus and others] (in Russian). Gefter. Archived from the original on 14 December 2015. Retrieved 16 December 2015.
  8. ↑ "УКАЗ ПРЕЗИДЕНТА УКРАЇНИ №575/2016 – Офіційне інтернет-представництво Президента України" [Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 575/2016 – Official Internet representation of the President of Ukraine]. president.gov.ua (in Ukrainian). 27 December 2016. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  9. ↑ Balla, Olga (1 November 2016). Тяжелые соты письма [Heavy honeycomb letters] (in Russian). Colta. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
  10. ↑ "Recollections (from 'Stones')". Ambit. 235. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020.
  11. ↑ "Pennsylvanian Readings – Asymptote". Asymptote Journal. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  12. ↑ "Serhiy Zhadan | Blackbird v16n2 | #poetry". blackbird.vcu.edu. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  13. ↑ "Casanova". Gulf Coast. Winter–Spring 2022.
  14. ↑ "Two Poems". The Manchester Review. 2 February 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  15. ↑ "No.3 2017 War of the Beasts and the Animals". 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 4 May 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  16. ↑ "Two Poems by Serhiy Zhadan, translated by Valzhyna Mort". Poetry International Online. 17 December 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  17. ↑ "Serhiy Zhadan (poet) – Ukraine – Poetry International". poetryinternationalweb.net. 30 March 2018. Archived from the original on 30 March 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  18. ↑ Serhiy, Zhadan (25 April 2018). "City That Cultivated Our Voice". Plume. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  19. ↑ "The Threepenny Review: Issue 156, Winter 2019". Three Penny Review. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  20. ↑ "Fishes' Tears". Tin House. 10 August 2016. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  21. ↑ "Stones (excerpts)". Virginia Quarterly Review. Fall 2011. Archived from the original on 7 May 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2022.
  22. 1 2 "Serhiy Zhadan wrote the poem and starred in an advertisement for McDonald's". Ukrainska Pravda – Zhyttia (in Ukrainian). 27 August 2024. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
  23. ↑ ""Червона фіра": 20 років по тому" ["Red Fira": 20 years later]. ЛітАкцент – світ сучасної літератури (in Ukrainian). 5 May 2012. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  24. ↑ ""Червона Фіра" як початок "жаданівської" культури | Справжня Варта" ["Chervona Fira" as the beginning of "Zhadanivka" culture | The True Guard]. varta.kharkov.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  25. ↑ "Лівизна як "архітектурна прикраса" в творчості Сергія Жадана" [Leftism as an "architectural decoration" in the work of Serhiy Zhadan]. ЛітАкцент – світ сучасної літератури (in Ukrainian). 17 September 2010. Archived from the original on 4 May 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  26. ↑ McGrane, Sally (8 March 2014). "The Abuse of Ukraine's Best-Known Poet". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 12 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  27. ↑ "Ukraine activists swap Lenin for Lennon". BBC. 23 December 2013. Archived from the original on 9 December 2017. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  28. ↑ Maksymiuk, Jan; Bigg, Claire (11 March 2014). "Ukraine's Rock Star Poet Who Chose to Fight Back". Radio Free Europe. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  29. ↑ Amos, Howard. ""Everything changed". Ukraine's literary star Serhiy Zhadan on 5 years since Euromaidan". The Calvert Journal. Retrieved 27 January 2020.
  30. 1 2 Nogaś, Michał (5 March 2022). ""Wolna Ukraina mówi głosem Żadana!". Pisarz nadaje z Charkowa. Polacy zgłosili go do Nobla" ["Free Ukraine Speaks with the Voice of Zhadan!" The writer broadcasts from Kharkiv. Poles nominated him for the Nobel Prize.]. wyborcza.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 5 March 2022.
  31. ↑ Gall, Carlotta; Chubko, Oleksandr (24 September 2024). "Ukrainian Poet and Rock Star Fights Near Front and Performs Behind It". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  32. ↑ Melnikov, Rostislav; Tsaplin, Yuriy (2007). "Northeast of the Southwest: The Contemporary Literature of Kharkiv". The New Literary Review, #85. Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  33. ↑ Ankudinov, Kirill (5 June 2008). "Adventures in April". Vzglyad. Archived from the original on 14 August 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2009.
  34. ↑ Brack, Joëlle (28 November 2014). "Prix Jan Michalski 2014". Payot Libraire. Retrieved 29 November 2014.
  35. ↑ "The Orphanage wins the EBRD Literature Prize 2022". ebrd.com. Archived from the original on 13 June 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  36. ↑ "Сергій Жадан отримає Премію миру німецьких книгарів" [Serhiy Zhadan to receive the German Booksellers Peace Prize]. Радіо Свобода (in Ukrainian). 27 June 2022. Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  37. ↑ "Serhij Zhadan – Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels". friedenspreis-des-deutschen-buchhandels.de (in German). Retrieved 29 July 2022.
  38. ↑ "Staatspreis für Europäische Literatur an Serhij Zhadan". buecher.at, 1 July 2025 (in Austrian German). Retrieved 26 July 2025.
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