Haska Shyyan

Halyna (Haska) Shyyan is a writer, poet and translator. Her literary journey began in 2012 by translating and publishing Lights Out In Wonderland by DBC Pierre, a Booker Prize winner. Haska created an art project based on the book and registered a trade mark called Batrachomyomachia.

In 2014 she debuted Hunt, Doctor, Hunt!, which was inspired by a stay in hospital caused by the sudden and rare Hunt syndrome. A surrealistic story about a medical student from Brazil, who reflects on life in Ukraine at the beginning of the Donbas crisis. The book was long listed for the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year award.

Luckily not only extreme health conditions stimulate creativity for the authour. In 2016 Haska began working on her second novel, Behind the Back.  This time, a very realistic story of a young woman’s inner conflict about her boyfriend joining the army. The novel was published by Fabula in March 2019 and in May 2019 it was awarded the European Union Prize for Literature. 

Haska also writes poetry, contributes to magazines and on-line resources, short stories, anthologies and collections. She gives modern Ukrainian women a voice and tries to analyse challenges they face in their daily lives by deeply examining the person’s individual struggle with global circumstances. 

Haska participated in literature festivals and events in Edinburg, Lviv, Paris, Vinnytsya, Birminghan, Kyiv, Belgrade, Krakow, Sofia, Berlin, London.