Line & Verse: Olena Boryshpolets “Orpheus and Eurydice in New York” (Ukraine)

In this special reading and musical performance, City of Asylum writer-in-residence Olena Boryshpolets shares her latest release, a poetry collection titled Orpheus and Eurydice in New York (translated by Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko). Joining Olena are her fellow City of Asylum writers in residence. These collaborations include a reading from Olena while Oleksandr accompanies her on piano, residents Anouar Rahmani, Volodymyr Rafeyenko, and Rania Mamoun reading from Orpheus and Eurydice, and a vocal/piano reinterpretation of one of Olena’s poems from Oleksandr and his wife Mari Frazé-Frazénko. 

The collection covers a vast landscape, from the Ukrainian steppe and across the Black Sea to the United States. Olena writes poems that weave in the past and tell us about a terrible war, the fate of Ukrainians, and her love for her hometown. Orpheus and Eurydice in New York is a ray of sunlight that brings hope in times of discord and despair. This bilingual book offers a comprehensive look at her vivid poems, full of light, color, and love. Writer-in-residence Volodymyr Rafeyenko described the collection as “a flame that burns here and now…an effort to be alive.” 

Purchase your own copy of Olena’s book, Orpheus and Eurydice in New York, at City of Asylum Bookstore and get it signed in person. 

About the Author:

Olena Boryshpolets is from Odesa, Ukraine. It is said that you can leave Odesa, but Odesa will never leave you. As such, Olena has carried Odesa with her upon her arrival in Pittsburgh, and is ready to share the incredible city with us all. She is a poet, writer, journalist, actress, culture manager, and laureate of the Konstantin Paustovsky Municipal Literary Prize for the collection of poems, “Blue Star.” Olena is also a member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine and a co-founder of the public organization Creation Without Borders. After the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine in February 2022, Olena went to Poland and banded together with other Ukrainian women to tell the European audience about the war and its consequences through the Polish-Ukrainian play “Life in the Event of War.” She has been a Research Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and writer in residence as part of City of Asylum’s Fellowship for Ukrainian Writers since March 2023.