Lina Kostenko

An acclaimed Ukrainian poet and singer of the 60s.

She was born on 19 February 1930 in the Kirov region in the family of teachers.

In 1936, Kostenko's parents moved to Kiev, where Lina Vasilivna graduated from high school. After that she studied at the Kiev Teacher Training Institute, the Moscow Institute of Literature named after Gorky, which she graduated in 1956.

The first collection of essays by Lina Kostenko - "Change of Earth" - was published in 1957.

In the 60s, the poem was the most memorable of the pleiad of young Ukrainian authors, who worked at that time. Kostenko proved to be a disloyal to the regime of the time, because for a long time her works were not published.

In 1987 Kostenko published a novel in short stories "Marusya Churai", for which (and for the collection of stories "Impermanence") was awarded the Shevchenko Prize.

The same year Lina Kostenko published a collection of stories "The Garden of Untouchable Sculptures" and a collection of stories for children "Elderberry Tsar.

In 2010, after a twenty-year hiatus, the writer has presented to his readers and fans prose book "Notes of a Ukrainian Samashchego", which is the first part of the planned trilogy. It is also known that at that time she had prepared two more books - another part of "Notes" and a collection of "Chornobyl stories".

In June 2011, Lina took part in a tour presentation of her first novel. The presentations were held in Kiev, Rivne and Kharkiv, and there was a full house on every occasion, but not everyone who wanted to come was able to do so because there was no room in the halls. But on the 9th of February the writer interrupted her tour because of her personal image.

In February 2011 the poetry collection "Hercules River", which included previously written works and 50 new poems, was released.

Lina Kostenko is Professor Emeritus at the National University "Kiev-Mohyla Academy", Honorary Doctor of the University of Chernivtsi, is a winner of the Petrarch Prize (Italy, 1994), winner of international literary and artistic Olena Teliga Award (2000). She is known for her public resignation from the title of Hero of Ukraine and the motivation for this resignation - "I do not wear political costumes".

Lina Kostenko's daughter, Oksana Pahlovska, is also a singer, as well as a renowned culture expert and professor at one of Rome's universities.