Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko

Frazé-Frazénko authored a dozen books of poetry. his last book in Ukrainian 'Decadence' (2017) is recognized as a bestseller by the biggest bookstore chain in Ukraine, Ye Bookstore. his first book in English 'Happy Lovers' (2021) has been shortlisted for the prestigious Ukrainian-American Kovaliv Prize. he was the first to have translated Jim Morrison’s poetry into Ukrainian and published it in 2013. the volume was sold out in one day during the presentation at the Kurbas Theatre in Lviv. it immediately became a collector's item.

"This is poetry as noir, as self-interrogation: Chandler meets Bukowski. Mining the urban dark, Fraze-Frazenko mints epigrams ("in Ukrainian pain/is a masculine noun") and refuses to look away "because no matter where we might be, /we're always followed by shadows./we carry dark wounds." What he unearths glimmers with veins of luminosity certain to haunt long after the book is closed." Askold Melnyczuk author, founder of AGNI (magazine).

click here to read a selection of translations Oleksandr has done over the years in both English and Ukrainian.

FAQ UKRAINE (2024)

FAQ UKRAINE is the second poetry book by Oleksandr Fraze-Frazenko published in the United States. It contains new poems written in English (translated into Ukrainian) and selected works translated into English from Ukrainian.

This book delves into the sophisticated and often controversial love-hate relationship between the poet and his motherland, guiding readers through the labyrinth of history while shedding light on the nation's uncertain future.

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HAPPY LOVERS (2021)

Oleksandr Fraze-Frazenko is one of the most innovative Ukrainian artists of his generation. This bilingual book of poetry and prose contains new texts and some previously published in his book of collected works Decadence (2017). These texts are a cause for the reader to inhabit a space in between life and death and good and evil. This can be an uncomfortable and interesting space, one that makes these pages so alluring. "Sandy Dies," the prose section, provokes the reader to question reality.

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DECADENCE (2017)

here's how one of the greatest Ukrainian poets Yuriy Tarnawsky described these works: "This is poetry of the purest kind, based on semantics, in other words, meaning, rather than phonetics, or sound. Whoever wants to see a proof of this should take a look at ancient folk spells and the oldest examples of poetry that have survived to tour times, such as Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian. All of this is connected with associations, and Oleksandr Fraze-Frazenko's Mass is based on them. They support it the way the spinal column supports the body of a person from the first line in the book (I would call it a poem, rather than a collection of poems) to the last."

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poetry reading in English.

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poetry reading in Ukrainian.

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public debates.

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interviews.

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