Oksana Zabuzhko (born 19 September 1960) is a contemporary Ukrainian poet, writer and essayist.
Born in Lutsk, Ukraine, Zabuzhko studied philosophy at the Kiev University, where she also obtained her doctorate in aesthetics in 1987. In 1992 she taught at Penn State University as an invited writer. Zabuzhko won a Fulbright scholarship in 1994 and taught Ukrainian literature at Harvard and University of Pittsburgh. Currently Zabuzhko works at the Hryhori Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Zabuzhko is known both for her literary works and criticism. Her controversial bestselling novel Field Work in Ukrainian Sex was translated in eight languages. In her writing Zabuzhko draws a lot of attention to the questions of Ukrainian self-identification, post-colonial issues and feminism. Her book Let My People Go won the Korrespondent magazine Best Ukrainian documentary book award in June 2006,”The Museum of Abandoned Secrets” – Best Ukrainian Book 2010.
Zabuzhko’s texts translated in English:
– O. Zabuzhko Girls, translated from the Ukrainian by Askold Melnyczuk.
– O. Zabuzhko I, Milena in: The Third Shore: Women’s Fiction from East Central Europe (Writings from an Unbound Europe) (Paperback) by Agata Schwartz, Luise von Flotow. Also found in: Two Lands, New Visions: Stories from Canada and Ukraine by Janice Kulyk Keefer (Editor), Solomea Pavlychko (Editor).
– O. Zabuzhko Field Work In Ukrainian Sex (Excerpt). AGNI, 53, Spring 2001.
– A Kingdom of Fallen Statues. Poems and Essays by Oksana Zabuzhko Transl. by Marco Carynnyk, Askold Melnyczuk, Michael M.Naydan, Wanda Phipps, Lisa Sapinkopf, Douglas Burnet Smith, and Virlana Tkacz. Toronto: Wellspring Ltd., 1996
