Svitlana Pyrkalo

Svitlana Pyrkalo (born 1976, in Poltava, Ukrainian SSR) is a London-based writer, journalist and translator who writes in Ukrainian, English and Russian.

Early life and education Svitlana Pyrkalo was born in 1976, in Poltava, Ukrainian SSR. She studied the Ukrainian language at the Taras Shevchenko State University in Kyiv.

In 2000, she became editor-in-chief of a television talk show, Without Taboo , at the Ukrainian 1+1 channel, dedicated to unusual human stories, with elements of dramatization.

From 2007 to 2009, Pyrkalo wrote a weekly column in the Ukrainian-language magazine Glavred . and producer with the BBC Ukrainian service, and presented the Friday interactive evening program in Ukraine from London. She is also the originator of the BBC Ukrainian annual book prize of which she is a permanent panel member.

In 2020, she joined the board of trustees of the Ukrainian Institute of London.

, she works for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Books In 1998, she compiled and published The First Dictionary of Ukrainian Slang It was also reviewed in the Journal of Ukrainian Studies. It has since been used and quoted by other researchers. and was awarded 2nd place in a Smoloskyp publishers contest for young writers. Subsequently, it was published by Smoloskyp in 2000, and has since been republished twice (2002, 2007) by two different publishers. Maria G. Rewakowicz writes in Harvard Ukrainian Studies that her "offhand and fragmentary manner of narration, quite in line with postmodernist premises, helps her to debunk the entrenched gender stereotypes and to parody the trivialities found in a number of women's magazines." Rewakowicz also describes Pyrkalo as often seen as a disciple of Oksana Zabuzhko, and writes with Alexandra Hrycak in Studies in East European Thought that Zabuzhko was proud to be a "mother figure" to her and other women writers.

In 2002, together with colleagues T. Vorozhko and M. Veresen, she published a book describing their TV experience, Without Taboo about "Without Taboo" with "Zeleny Pes" publishers.

In 2004, Pyrkalo's second novel, Don't Think About Red , was published by Fakt publishers.

In 2007, Fakt also published her collection of essays on food, travel and Ukrainian identity Egoist's Kitchen . In 2007, Pyrkalo also translated into Ukrainian the novel Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka.

Selected publications Перший словник українського молодіжного сленгу. Vipol, Kyiv, 1998. Зелена Маргарита. 1999. Без табу про "Без Табу. Zeleny Pes, 2002. (With T. Vorozhko and M. Veresen) Не думай про червоне. Fakt publishers, Kyіv, 2004. Кухня Егоїста. 2007.