Lyubov Sirota Poet, prose writer, translator, publicist, playwright. Date of Birth: 21.06.1956 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Lyubov Sirota

Lyubov Sirota, a poet, prose writer, translator, journalist, and playwright, was born in 1956 in Irtyshsk, Pavlodar Oblast, Kazakhstan. She grew up in Frunze (now Bishkek), the capital of Kyrgyzstan, where she was a member of the city's literary association "Gornye Zori" (Mountain Dawns). Her early works were published in Kyrgyzstan's periodicals. In 1975, she moved with her parents to Ukraine, where she graduated from the Philology Faculty of Dnipropetrovsk State University. She worked as the leader of the literary association "Poisk" in Komsomolsk, Poltava Oblast. In 1983, she moved to Pripyat, Kiev Oblast, with her young son Alexander, where she led the literary association "Prometheus" in the city's cultural palace "Energetik." She organized an experimental poetic "disco-theater" in collaboration with the disco "Edison 2," where she staged two of her plays: the musical-poetic "We Couldn't Not Find Each Other" and the play about Marina Tsvetaeva "My Specialty is Life." After the Chernobyl disaster and the evacuation from Pripyat, she lived in Kiev and worked as an editor at the Dovzhenko Film Studio until 1992. Sirota's works have been translated into many languages and have gained international recognition. She is best known for her writings dedicated to the Chernobyl tragedy. In her poetry, Sirota combines emotional language, the organic connection of the personal and the civic, and a wide range of lexical representation of lyrical experiences. Her poetry creates a powerful magical field and encompasses the author's radius of poetic self-expression. Sirota's first poetry collection, "Burden," published in 1990, was highly acclaimed for its original stylistics, precise and clear vision, and a broad palette of lexical representation of the lyrical hero's experiences. Her work reflects her extraordinary sense of time and her deep understanding of the human condition. Sirota's poetry captures the essence of the time and the collective memory, making her a distinctive voice in Russian and Ukrainian literature. Her poems have been featured in numerous anthologies, literary magazines, and newspapers in the former USSR and Ukraine. After the publication of her book "Burden" and the release of the film "Threshold" by renowned documentary filmmaker Rollan Sergienko, her poetry gained international recognition. Her works have been translated into English, German, Polish, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and other languages. Sirota's poetry has been featured in various international publications and anthologies. Her work explores the themes of ecological disasters, human tragedies, and love, reflecting her personal experiences and the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. Sirota's poetry calls for environmental awareness, renewed sense of brotherhood, and reflection on the ethical and ecological aspects of human existence. Her writings have become a powerful testament to the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster and the resilience of the human spirit. Sirota's work has been highly praised by critics and scholars, who recognize her unique contribution to literature and her ability to capture the essence of the human condition in the face of tragedy. She continues to write, translate, and advocate for environmental awareness and the preservation of the memory of the Chernobyl tragedy.