Lazutkin never went back to engineering. For the next three years, the poet, who has a black belt in kempo karate and is a national champion in Cossack martial arts, worked as a karate coach. In 2004, he went to Poland on a Polish Ministry of Culture artistic fellowship for Ukrainian and Byelorussian artists, Gaude Polonia. Back in Kyiv, he worked as an events organizer at a pub for a year and then as a sports journalist at the National TV Company. Since then, he’s stuck to journalism.
In the meantime, Dmytro Lazutkin was awarded the Bohdan-Ihor Antonych literary award (1999), the Granoslov literary award for young writers (2002), the Smoloskyp literary prize (2004), and the Kultrevansh (Cultrevenge, 2005). In 2006 he was named Poet of the Year by proza.com.ua.
He participated in the First Literary Festival at the Lviv Publishers Forum (2006), Magnus Ducatu Poesis (Minsk, 2006), Independence Day with Makhno (Huliajpole, Ukraine, 2006), CEKH (The Workshop, Kharkiv, 2006), the Moscow Festival of Vers Libre (2005), the Moscow Poets’ Biennale (2003), among others. His poems have appeared in Chetver (Thursday), Potyah 76 (Express 76), Kurier Kryvbasu, Kolekcia, Tryton, Futurum–art etc.
