Apofenie Magazine

07/01/2024

“It was her citadel where nothing was scary. But she would probably be afraid to walk in the forest for the rest of her life and wouldn’t let the children go there, lest they step on a landmine.”

Ukrainian author Kateryna Zarembo’s short story “August” delves into the joy of being able to return home during wartime — and the quiet terror that nonetheless persists. Link in bio.

07/01/2024

“It’s an interesting thing, you know: since the border’s been open, the deer still won’t cross over into Germany. They couldn’t when it was divided by the Iron Curtain, there used to be a live wire fence which would always shoot flares whenever anyone touched it.”

Our Fall 2023 Issue features a short story from Czech literary superstar Bianca Bellová, which explores borderlands, longing, and madness. Link in bio.

06/01/2024

🪬 We're currently accepting submissions for Apofenie Magazine's Winter 2024 Issue 🪬

As both object and practice, veils hold the imaginative possibilities and responsibilities of recognition. This includes learning to recognize what remains to be seen and what deserves to be concealed. For instance, in Veiled Sentiments, anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod describes the act of veiling in Bedouin society as “a vocabulary item in a symbolic language,” one that communicates about morality. In The Souls of Black Folks, W.E.B. DuBois’ imagines a different kind of Veil: a racialized barrier that prohibits understanding and equality, as he writes: “beneath the Veil lay right and wrong, vengeance and love, and sometimes throwing aside the veil, a soul of sweet Beauty and Truth stood revealed.”

In our forthcoming issue of Apofenie Magazine, we seek essays, poetry, and prose that engage the theme of veils in all their symbolic, material, and visionary manifestations. We insist that speaking—and thereby listening—cuts through the darkness of wars, genocides, and occupations, thus opening spaces for grief and witness.

All submissions should be sent to apofeniemagazine[at]gmail[dot]com no later than February 14.

Link in first comment.

29/11/2023

After a nearly two-year hiatus from quarterly issues, we're proud to present the August 2023 Issue. We explore the theme of “rekindling” as a way of envisaging, and perhaps even creating, possibilities for return, renewal, and recreation.

https://www.apofenie.com/rekindling-autumn-2023-issue?fbclid=IwAR3kbsRn7heHF-Hr58OFPiQvDJacVxosxpNEjahuQ-9vla7rIFkBgkmRawQ

 It is nearly impossible to overstate the extent to which our recent political imaginations have been shaped, among many other things, through pandemic, climate catastrophe, policing, war, genocide, and gun violence. So much so that these realities often fall into the realm of the ordinary, asking ...

29/11/2023

"What taught people to sharpen knives
was screams."

Vasyl Stus was a Ukrainian poet and dissident who died in a Russian penal colony in 1985. Read some of his poetry in Bohdan Tokarsky and Julius Kochan's translation in our latest issue.

by Vasyl Stus Translated from the Ukrainian by Bohdan Tokarsky and Julius Kochan If people carry on writing books for another couple of centuries then what will our descendants do? What taught people to sharpen knives was screams.

03/10/2023

Writing in the 1990s, when many intellectuals were hopeful about the future and ready to leave the past behind, Johanides stressed the continuity between the past and the present, underscoring the continuity of historical evils.

by Katarina Gephardt Writing in the 1990s, when many intellectuals were hopeful about the future and ready to leave the past behind, Johanides stressed the continuity between the past and the present, underscoring the continuity of historical evils. However, aspects of the colonel’s and even Ostar...

03/10/2023

Jaroslav Hašek’s enduring success as a writer, thanks to his novel The Good Soldier Švejk, left him in an unwarranted one-hit wonder conundrum.

by Anthony Hennen Jaroslav Hašek’s enduring success as a writer, thanks to his novel The Good Soldier Švejk , left him in an unwarranted one-hit wonder conundrum. A raucous satire about a soldier strongarmed into the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, the book has been translated into doz...

03/10/2023

Sonya Bilocerkowycz interviewed Olesya Khromeychuk about mixing literary genres, visions of solidarity, transforming her memoir "The Death of a Soldier Told By His Sister" from English into Ukrainian, how history informs her artistic practice, and more.

Interviewed by Sonya Bilocerkowycz “(Ukrainian solidarity) is something that I think people outside of Ukraine struggle to grasp: Why is a Crimean Tatar fighting for Donbas? How is it that a Russophone Ukrainian would rather die fighting than find her- or himself in Russian occupation? Our strengt...

03/10/2023

The opening words of Hanna Komar’s poetry collection, “wrap around me like ribwort,” grab the reader with courage and tenderness, grief and love, and never let go.

Reviewed by John Farndon The opening words of Belarusian poet Hanna Komar’s Ribwort, “wrap around me like ribwort,” grab the reader with courage and tenderness, grief and love, and never let go. Ribwort, a plant revered in Belarus for its potent healing properties in herbal medicine, is a comp...

27/03/2023

How has war changed Kharkiv and those who call it home? Kharkiv native Yuliya Iliukha reflects on the roots of war.

This text is part of Meridian Czernowitz's State of War anthology. We'll be re-publishing a few of the translations exclusively on Apofenie.

by Yuliya Iliukha Translated from the Ukrainian by Kate Tsurkan and Yulia Lyubka As we drove the familiar route that I had traveled for years, I could list all the villages that dotted both sides of the Kyiv highway from memory. I didn't even need to look at the signs. They had been taken down duri

27/03/2023

In her usual playful and witty style, Haska Shyyan explores how Ukrainians adapt to war, deal with stupid questions from foreigners, and make their own small steps to decolonize Ukraine from Russian influence.

This text is part of Meridian Czernowitz's State of War anthology. We'll be re-publishing a few of the translations exclusively on Apofenie.

by Haska Shyyan Translated from the Ukrainian by Kate Tsurkan and Yulia Lyubka I'm not one to get nostalgic often, so it came as a surprise to me when I was overtaken by an intense and illogical longing to be in Ukraine during those early days of the full-scale invasion; the direness of the situati

27/03/2023

Grigory Semenchuk explores the cognitive dissonance Ukrainians experience when they go abroad during wartime, the well-meaning yet bizarre questions they are asked by foreigners, and more.

This text is part of Meridian Czernowitz's State of War anthology. We'll be re-publishing a few of the translations exclusively on Apofenie.

by Grigory Semenchuk Translated from the Ukrainian by Yulia Lyubka and Kate Tsurkan “Where are you from?” asks a group of men in expensive suits in the lobby bar of a small British town hotel. “From Ukraine,” I reply. “Wow, Ukraine! Are you here for the literary festival? How do you like i...

17/10/2022

Apofenie subscribers get a first look at Anna West's review of Czech author Bianca Bellová's gripping novel THE LAKE, now available in English translation.🌻 Support our magazine by becoming a patron today!

Join Apofenie on Patreon to get access to this post and more benefits.

12/10/2022

Romanian-Moldovan novelist Tatiana Țîbuleac spoke to Paula Erizanu about womanhood, generational change, Soviet-era Russification, the war in Ukraine and the ensuing refugee crisis.

Interviewed by Paula Erizanu My father taught me to read the Latin script before the Cyrillic alphabet. But I wasn't allowed to talk about it at school. But we, the children who read books in Romanian, knew each other. Even if we were not friends, we had a feeling of solidarity with each other.

11/10/2022

Ukrainian filmmaker and poet Iryna Tsilyk reflects on how love endures despite the fear and uncertainty of wartime.

by Iryna Tsilyk Translated from the Ukrainian by Tetiana Savchynska I have a recurring dream that has been haunting me in different variations for many years. In it, two people are walking side by side across a vast and snowy field. They carry backpacks (or rather, emergency go-bags) including all

30/09/2022

Ukrainian author Lyubko Deresh recounts his friendship with Volodymyr Rafeenko, and how he helped his fellow author escape from occupied Kyiv region in the early days of full-scale war.

by Lyubko Deresh Translated from the Ukrainian by Dmytro Kyyan Volodymyr also understood it. Before the seminar on NOMADLAND , he wrote to me: "Despite everything, I want us to do our work and to do it well." However, it seemed that fate had destined him to face the war head-on for a sec

03/08/2022

My heart sinks. I forgot. For a moment, I forgot—not about the war, which is impossible to forget, but about how close we are to death. It's right there, just tens of kilometers away. It feels wrong to even look at it. The enemy. The country that is trying to kill us. It's so close, looming over my beloved Kharkiv. What gives them the right?

By Maryna Prykhodko My heart sinks. I forgot. For a moment, I forgot—not about the war, which is impossible to forget, but about how close we are to death. It's right there, just tens of kilometers away. It feels wrong to even look at it. The enemy. The country that is trying to kill us. It's so c...

03/08/2022

How does our memory work? What does it choose? How do associations arise? How is trauma born and how does it mature? People will be going to therapists and psychiatrists, and even now Ukraine doesn’t have enough specialists in these professions.

by Myroslav Laiuk Translated from the Ukrainian by Daisy Gibbons How does our memory work? What does it choose? How do associations arise? How is trauma born and how does it mature? People will be going to therapists and psychiatrists, and even now Ukraine doesn’t have enough specialists in these

03/08/2022

What I do not know during that summer of 2020 is that nearly two years later, I will revisit this paragraph with regret for remembering Kharkiv instead of returning there when I had the chance. For imagining instead of experiencing. Planning instead of doing. And then I will write something again, but this time it will be a longer piece.

by Olga Breydo What I do not know during that summer of 2020 is that nearly two years later, I will revisit this paragraph with regret for remembering Kharkiv instead of returning there when I had the chance. For imagining instead of experiencing. Planning instead of doing. And then I will writ

26/03/2022

Paula Erizanu reports on the incredible efforts of the Moldovan people to aid Ukrainian refugees.

https://www.apofenie.com/letters-and-essays/2022/3/26/a-small-country-with-a-big-heart

by Paula Erizanu Since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 370,000 Ukrainians have crossed the Moldovan border. About 100,000 Ukrainian refugees have decided to stay in the small country, half of them children, increasing Moldova's population by 4%. Relative to its size, Moldova has

12/02/2022

Maria Genkin on reading Olga Tokarczuk’s The Books of Jacob (now in English translation) and how a familiarity with the history of Central and Eastern Europe deepens that experience.

https://www.apofenie.com/criticism-1/2022/2/11/reading-the-books-of-jacob-as-a-ukrainian

by Maria Genkin Ukrainians living in the Polish Commonwealth were known at the time as Ruthenians. Suppose you know this and follow a description of Tokarczuk’s characters carefully. In that case, you discover that the Polish Commonwealth was populated not only by Jews and Poles, but by these myst

05/02/2022

Artem Chekh spoke with Kate Tsurkan about the war in contemporary Ukrainian literature, how Ukrainian readers engage with these books, if artists have any impact on society, and more.

https://www.apofenie.com/interviews/2022/2/4/i-am-very-skeptical-about-the-impact-of-art-on-the-masses-an-interview-with-artem-chekh

Interviewed by Kate Tsurkan When a person unfamiliar with the war comes along and says, “Now I will show you the whole truth”, most people for whom this wound is unhealed perceive such “truth” as an assault on their wound with dirty surgical instruments.

02/02/2022

Many thanks to our friends at The Calvert Journal for giving Apofenie a shoutout!

https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/13513/eastern-europe-central-asia-english-best-independent-english-language-journalism-culture-lifestyle-longform-2022

We’re bringing together some of the region’s best English-language journalism

02/12/2021

VOLUME 12: (RE)WRITING HOME
SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE: MARCH 31ST

For many writers, the idea of “home” emerges through imagined intimacies—entangled in the experiences of longing and belonging and textured through the languages of memory and loss. In the Epilogue to her biomythography, Zami, Audre Lorde describes how, as a daughter of immigrants, “once home was a long way off, a place I had never been to but know out of my mother’s mouth.” Similarly, James Baldwin remarked that “Perhaps home is not a place, but an irrevocable condition.” Home is, in many ways, not a location but a contouring of one’s history, both material and imagined. Moreover, for those who live in the margins, this concept often fails to capture the social cost of their liminality. In this issue of Apofenie, we seek poetry, prose, and nonfiction that addresses this question of home—its problems, possibilities, architectures, and mythologies. To what extent does the idea of home offer an apparatus for belonging? What are some of ways that it can be reclaimed and reimagined? We are especially interested in work that thematizes the problem of home amidst dislocation, war, post-coloniality, disability, and marginalized identities (including LGBTQ+).

More details on our website.

24/11/2021

Serhiy Zhadan spoke with Liliia Shutiak about God, Brecht, helping children affected by the war in Donbas, and more.

https://www.apofenie.com/interviews/2021/11/16/sqjcqe2lahpfxg0p8y5j3xh5t99pqk

Serhiy Zhadan spoke about translating Bertold Brecht, the values of Christianity, helping children affected by the war in Donbas, and more.

20/10/2021

Like Aharon Appelfeld’s works, Tišma captures the half-living experience of a survivor and the guilt that accompanies it, but Tišma abandons the hints of dignity Appelfeld affords his characters—he abandons the very idea of dignity.

https://www.apofenie.com/book-reviews/2021/10/20/-a-review-of-aleksandar-timas-kapo-2021-nyrb

Reviewed by David Auerbach Like Aharon Appelfeld’s works, Tišma captures the half-living experience of a survivor and the guilt that accompanies it, but Tišma abandons the hints of dignity Appelfeld affords his characters—he abandons the very idea of dignity.

18/10/2021

The work of Ion Cristofor, a distinguished Romanian poet, critic, editor, and translator, has been translated into Italian, German, French, and Catalan, but his English-language debut has been a long time coming.

Isaac Wheeler Andreea Iulia Scridon

https://www.apofenie.com/book-reviews/2021/10/15/the-strange-sincerity-of-desolation-a-review-of-ion-cristofors-somewhere-a-blind-child-2021-naked-eye-publishing

Reviewed by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler The poet belongs to Romania’s “80s generation” who experienced the darkest days of the Ceaușescu regime, when the people faced political repression and economic privations that were extreme even by the standards of the communist world.

06/10/2021

Ukrainian author and filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk spoke with Liliia Shutiak about victims of war and trauma of the 90s, family stories and the search for new forms of expression, the struggle for natural-sounding Ukrainian in film, and more.

https://www.apofenie.com/interviews/2021/10/3/im-always-looking-for-reasons-to-be-optimistic-an-interview-with-iryna-tsilyk

Interviewed by Liliia Shutiak I’m always looking for reasons to be optimistic. Everyone in Ukraine is devastated and exhausted by what has been happening to us for the past eight years, and if you do not find any reasons for joy in your daily trials, it is very easy to burn out prematurely.

04/10/2021

Ines Helene spoke with Kate Tsurkan about the success of her NFT trading card series, whether NFTs are art, the appeal of crypto currency, and privacy as a lost art form.

https://www.apofenie.com/interviews/2021/10/4/privacy-is-becoming-a-lost-arm-form-an-interview-with-ines-helene

Interviewed by Kate Tsurkan I would call myself a creator, but not necessarily an artist. That’s more difficult to define. I do think NFTs are art form, though, just like oil on canvas or clay sculptures.

24/09/2021

The postmodern blackpill — the contemporary su***de — is given to us by the simulation of a society that isn’t real.

https://www.apofenie.com/criticism-1/2021/9/22/the-postmodern-su***de-part-i

by Adam Lehrer If Van Gogh was force fed his blackpill by a society at the dawn of modernism in rapid evolution, is it somehow worse to be force fed the blackpill now – by a society that doesn’t exist? The postmodern blackpill — the contemporary su***de — is given to us by the simulation of ...