Writers and Newspapers in Odesa

Rob Lipton is organizing this fundraiser.

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This fundraiser is to support Odesa writers at the Literary Museum of Odesa, Odesa Evening News and the Green Lamp Writers Group

The horror of the invasion of Ukraine continues. We, Ilya Kaminsky and Rob Lipton are so grateful for the generosity shown before--and would like to humbly ask now for your assistance in helping writers survive this winter in wartime when because of Russian bombardments, there is no electricity in the city of Odesa, Ukraine. Often, there is also no heat or water.

It is December. It's freezing. A poet friend is sharing translations of The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon - she is sending one page at a time.

Air-raid sirens wail.

What's Odesa like in a blackout? Refrigerators don't work, frozen food collected in case of a wartime emergency is gone. There is no light in people's houses, no light in their neighbors' houses, no light in the whole city.

Many say that in their neighborhoods there is no heat or water. After forty-eight hours of trying to warm up under piles of clothes, another poet friend decided to hail a cab -- not because she needed to quickly get someplace, but because she realized that she can warm up in the moving car!

Air-raid sirens keep wailing.

Oleg Suslov, a friend who is the editor of Odesa Evening News e-mails:

"I'm finishing the new issue of the newspaper & an air-raid siren begins again, Russia sent 60 missiles at us & no one knows where they are going. Air-raids are non stop for hours now. But let me tell you about the new issue, such good stories..."

Meanwhile, as refugees are leaving the city and businesses close, the local newspaper Odesa Evening News, long known for its fighting corruption and extensive cultural coverage, is trying to survive. The local Literary Museum, a gorgeous building in the heart of the city, dedicated to literature, is trying to survive. The writer's group, Green Lamp, is trying to survive, and while air-raid sirens continue wail, while there is no electricity and often also no water or heat, the poets gather to share their poems.

This is December in war-time Odesa. Friends, will you support Odesa wrters in this time of crisis?

Here are links to what is happening to writers in Odesa, Ukraine right now:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/10/russian-drone-attacks-target-power-network-odesa-ukraine

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2022/03/24/conversations-to-the-tune-of-air-raid-sirens-odesa-writers-on-literature-in-wartime/

https://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2022/july/odesa-various

https://orionmagazine.org/article/ukraine-russia-war-invasion-essays-2022/

Here are the links to organizations we are hoping to support:

Odesa Literary Museum: https://museum-literature.odessa.ua/en/

Odesa Evening News: https://vo.od.ua/

Green Lamp Writers Group at Odesites Club: https://www.odessitclub.org/index.php/uk/#

Thank you so much!

Photo: Ana Golubovsky