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the documentary, and reading the article, I decided to write their story. It started as a short story that grew into a book with the addition o f more characters. I wanted to know more about them, so I kept writing until they materialized on paper for me. A K : Can you tell me about your childhood? IZ: I was bom in Chicago. M y father w as actually Am erican bom. He was bom in Chester, Pennsylvania, but his parents were from Ukraine. His parents ran a boarding house for the Ukrainian miners in Chester. In between the wars, they were able to travel back and forth to Ukraine a lot more easily than later. Eventu ally they settled in Ukraine where m y father met m y mother, married her and brought her back to Am erica before the Second W orld W ar. M y brothers and I grew up with very Am erican influences because o f m y fa ther, but m y mother made sure that w e learned about our Ukrainian heritage. I attended St. Nicholas Ukrain ian Catholic School in Chicago, then a public high school. For a while I went to Loyola University. I thought that I was going to be a doctor (m y father wanted me to be a doctor), but I was so bad at it, espe cially math. After many detours, I became a writer. A K : W hen w as the first time that you realized that you wanted to write or felt that you had to write? IZ: I think that happened when I was about twelve. The Chicago Public Library had a book sale where I found this book by Edna Ferber. She was a very popu lar writer in the 19 30 's-19 4 0 's who wrote Giant and Showboat. She won the Pulitzer Prize too. A n yw ay, it was the first time that I had read a book written by a professional wom an writer who talked about being a writer. I was never athletic as a child; I was sort o f a kid who stayed inside and read a lot, so the idea that m aybe I could be a writer as a grown up some day was very appealing to me. I really had no role models to follow, except for Taras Shevchenko. Then, in m y twenties, with the wom en's liberation movement and people writing about their ethnic roots, I decided that becoming a writer w as really something that I could pursue since many opportunities were opening for women. Even though I wrote very poorly in the begin ning, I actually liked writing without having anyone guiding me along the way. A K : W ere your stories published? IZ: Y es, many o f m y stories were published in small magazines and textbooks. A K : So, actually you began writing seriously in your early twenties. IZ: W ell, in m y late twenties. It took me a while - I was a late bloomer, and o f course, it took some time to leam how to write well. A K : I personally feel that we do not have enough books in English about the Ukrainian immigrants and their contribution to the United States. What is your opinion on that? IZ: I absolutely agree on that issue. I wish that more o f our younger Ukrainian-Am ericans would write about their parents and grandparents and find out what and how they came and survived this country and about their lives in Ukraine. If we don't write about our own lives, our own collective consciousness, somebody else will. And usually they will do it wrong or in a w ay that misrepresents us. W e ourselves need to represent who we are as a people particularly in this country because we are not well liked sometimes, and it shows in some o f the books that I have read about Ukrainians. I think it is very important that we have a voice o f our own in Am erican and world literature. And for that to happen, we need more writers. A K : Have you considered writing more about that topic? IZ: Oh, I am alw ays writing about Ukrainians. I just cannot get aw ay from it. I try, I really try, but I just can't seem to get aw ay from writing about Ukrainians and their world. I guess writers generally write about what they know or what they want to know more about, I think it's the latter with me. Growing up in a Ukrainian neighborhood in Chicago, I always felt like an outsider. I didn't belong to Plast or SU M because I didn't know the language well enough. But when I went to college and other places that were far away from home, I realized Am ericans found me interesting because o f m y Ukrainian background. I was more Ukrainian among the Am ericans than I was with other Ukrainians. So, writing about things Ukrainian allows me to feel reconnected to the Ukrainian culture and people as much as I can. A s an artist - and writers are artists - I guess I will always feel marginal in most groups anyway. W ell, except with other artists. A K : So far both o f your books are fiction. IZ: Y es, that is tme. A K : Have you considered writing non-fiction? M aybe like biographies? IZ: Not at present. M aybe some day I might write a memoir or a traveling journal. I really love fiction, I love stories - that is m y first love. In fiction, I create m y own world and situations. Some parts are true, but basically they are conjured out o f m y own imagination. A K : Even your fictions have a bit o f historical back ground, do they not? IZ: A little, but I deviate. People always think that I do a tremendous amount o f research and I don't. I try to follow the advice o f the Am erican writer, Thornton Wilder, who said to write the story first, and then do the research. A K : A s former and Honorary President o f the U N W L A I know that there are no biographies or books “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2003 17
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