Volodymyr Rafeienko

Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Rafeyenko (born November 25, 1969) is a Ukrainian prose writer, poet, translator, literary and film critic, a member of PEN Ukraine. From 1992 to 2018, was writing in Russian, published his works mostly in Russia and was regarded as a representative of Russian literature. In 2014, having moved to the Kyiv region, learned Ukrainian, started writing his new novel in Ukrainian, and become a full-fledged representative of Ukrainian literature as well. In 2022, he moved to Ternopil escaping active fighting in Kyiv region. Rafeyenko is a representative of magic realism.

Education
Rafeienko was born in Donetsk, Ukraine. He graduated from Donetsk University with a degree in Russian philology and cultural studies.

Career
Volodymyr Rafeyenko worked as an editor in such Donetsk publishing houses as "BAO" and "Kassiopeia", as a deputy editor in "Mnogotochiye" Magazine. He is an author and complier of popular science and applicative books, detectives.

Prose books

 * Brief Farewell Book (rus. "Краткая книга прощаний", 2000, ukr. "Мала книжка прощань", 2017)
 * Holidays of Wizards (rus. "Каникулы магов", 2005)
 * Irretrievable Verbs (rus. "Невозвратные глаголы", 2009)
 * Moscow Divertissement (rus. "Московский дивертисмент", 2011, 2013) — a second-place winner of the 2010 Russian Prize in nomination of "Big Prose"
 * All thorough the Summer (rus. "Лето напролёт", 2012)
 * Decartes' Demon (rus. "Демон Декарта") — winner of the 2012 Russian Prize in nomination of "Big Prose"
 * The Length of Days (rus. "Долгота дней" ukr. "Довгі часи", 2017).
 * Mondegreen (Songs about Death and Love). (ukr. "Мондегрін: пісні про смерть і любов")

Plays

 * Mobile Waves of Life (ukr. «Мобільні хвилі буття», 2023)

Collections of poems

 * Three Days in the Middle of the Week (rus. "Три дня среди недели", 1998)
 * Private Sector (rus. "Частный сектор", 2002)
 * Help across the Street (rus. "Переводы через дорогу", 2003).

Edited volumes

 * The War 2022: Diaries, Essays, Poetry. (ukr. "Війна 2022: щоденники, есеї, поезія"

Awards

 * Moscow Divertissement became a second-place winner in a category "Big Prose" of the Russian Literary Prizes "Russian Prize" (2010)
 * Decartes' Demon is a winner of 2012 Russian Prize in nomination of "Big Prose" (2013)
 * NOS (Nose) Award, short list for the novel Decartes' Demon (2014)
 * Visegrad Eastern Partnership Literary Award for the novel The Length of Days (2017).
 * Volodymyr Korolenko Award, National Union of Ukrainian Writers, for the novel Brief Farewell Book (2016)
 * National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine, short list for the novel The Length of Days (2018)
 * National Taras Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine, short list for the novel Mondegrin. Songs about Death and Life (2020)
 * Angelus Central European Literature Award, short list for the novel Mondegrin. Songs about Death and Life (2021)

Language use
Volodymyr spoke Russian for 45 years of life. He was born in the east of Ukraine, in Donetsk, then, primarily a Russian-speaking city. His parents spoke Russian to him, the first books he read were in Russian; he had always spoken only Russian and studied in Russian. He learned Ukrainian when he moved to Kyiv in 2014. After Full-scale invasion started, he decided that none of his future books would be published in Russian. He reports that returning to his native Russian language is altogether impossible.