Yulia Berezhko-Kaminska is a Ukrainian poetess, journalist, editor, author of eight poetry books, and winner of the All-Ukrainian Literary Prize named in honour of Hryhor Tyutyunnyk, Oleksandr Oles and others, secretary of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine who is responsible for working with young authors.
Yulia was born in 1982 in the village of Chornobaivka (Kherson region), and has been living in the city of Bucha until the outbreak of the war. She graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Before the war, Yulia Berezhko-Kaminska worked with the creative youth of Ukraine, organized all-Ukrainian and international literary projects and competitions, and worked closely with leading metropolitan publishers and authors, and supported young writers.
But above all, Yulia is a poetess whose work has a circle of admirers in Ukraine. Yulia is a co-author of numerous collections, almanacs, anthologies, author of over 500 publications in national and international publications, guest of radio and television programs, participant in numerous literary events in many regions of Ukraine.
Songs have been composed using her poetry, and her works have been performed in the philharmonic halls of Ukraine and are studied in schools in literature lessons. Two of Yulia’s books were nominated for the Literary Prize named in honour of Taras Shevchenko, and were selected for a number of prestigious all-Ukrainian literary prizes.
Among Yulia’s ancestors is included the legendary Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko through the line of his mother’s sister Kateryna Boyko. Yulia’s mother is also of the Boyko line, and was born in the village of Moryntsi where Taras Shevchenko was also born. In March 2022, Yulia Berezhko-Kaminska was forced to emigrate to Poland due to active hostilities in her hometown of Bucha.
Her latest book of poems, Gravity of the Word, has recently been published, and translators are currently working to make this available as soon as possible to readers throughout the English-speaking world. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which within days particularly affected Bucha and other settlements north of Kyiv, she transferred, as a refugee, to Kraków, Poland. Andrew Sheppard, the editor of East–West Review, is the translator of her war poems.
