Hanna Barvinok

Oleksandra Mikhailovna Bilozerska-Kulish (; ; 5 May 1828 – 6 July 1911), who commonly wrote under the pseudonym Hanna Barvinok, was a Ukrainian writer and folklorist.

In addition to her better-known pseudonym of Hanna Barvinok, she also wrote under the name A. Nečuj-Viter. She was married to the writer Panteleimon Kulish and was the sister of Vasyl and Bilozersky.

Biography

Barvinok was born on 5 May 1828 as Oleksandra Mykhailivna Bilozerska in the Chernigov Governorate, an administrative subdivision of the Left-bank Ukraine in the Russian Empire (now part of Borzna in the Chernihiv Oblast of Ukraine). While she was young, the city had frequent fires, which eventually caused their family home to burn down. After the fire, she and her family moved to a nearby hamlet in .

Barvinok's family owned land in Motronivka. She then moved to Tula, following her exiled husband. In 1883, the Kulishs settled back in Motronivka.

Barvinok died on 6 July 1911, aged 83, in Motronivka. She was buried next to her husband at their former farm in the town. She began as a prose writer and mainly wrote about folk life, specifically among families and peasants, and was particularly drawn to the "fate of the peasant woman". 1887; Youth Struggle, 1902).

Her language was colorful, figurative, and full of folk proverbs. Some of her more figurative stories were "Mermaid", "Flower with tears, tears with flowers", "Disaster is not without good", "Autumn summer". Using Chernihiv and Poltava dialects, as well as knowledge of rural customs and folklore, she wrote the drama "Mother's Revenge".

Barvinok's works appeared in the almanacs Khata and , as well as the journals Osnova, Pravda, and the Literaturno-naukovyi vistynk, among others. Her writings were published in multiple collections and anthologies, including posthumous publications. Ukrainian writer Borys Hrinchenko praised her work, calling Barvinok "the poet of women's fate."

Legacy

exist in several settlements of Ukraine. A statue of Barvinok also stands at her historical homestead, now the .

The most complete collection of her work was published in the 2002 book (English: Hanna Barvinok), edited by Volodymyr Yatsyuk and Vasyl Shenderovsky. In 2018, the National Writers' Union of Ukraine held an event in Kyiv to celebrate the 190th anniversary of Barvinok's birth.