Books

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Biography & True Stories

2016

The Universe behind Barbed Wire: Memoirs and Reflections of a Dissident

by Myroslav Marynovych

The author of the book served 10 years in prison in a concentration camp and was in exile in Brezhnev times for participating in the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Group (UHG). It was the first legal, not underground, group of the Resistance Movement, which, acting for a long time, revealed to the whole world the situation with the human rights in Ukraine under the Soviet rule. Born in Galicia after the World War 2 and brought up in a Soviet school, the author shows in his memoirs the role of the Galician family in shaping the position of resistance to the totalitarian regime. He tells vigorously, interestingly and frankly about life in Kiev under the Soviets in the era of the Helsinki movement, about the activities of the UHG and its members, about unjust arrests, and Soviet crooked justice. He recounts in detail the life of political prisoners in a concentration camp, describes the circumstances of his exile in Kazakhstan. He pays great attention to the spiritual growth of a person, shares his reflections on dissidence and the nature of totalitarianism. And conclusively, he condemns the communist system.

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Diaries, letters & journals

2020

Narbut. Studies. Memoirs. Letters [A Supplemented Reproduction of the "Narbut Anthology", destroyed in 1933]

by Bohdan Zavitii (compiler)

This story behind this biographical memoir of a great artist begins before Narbut’s death. The best-known experts were invited to participate and contribute articles, which they spent many years preparing. But the Soviet censors “trimmed” the texts to their liking. When it was finally published in 1933, nearly all the authors had been repressed or executed. The anthology went under the knife at the printing press. It was a shame, too, because the paper was beautiful, specially allotted by the state printing press, as was the print. Only two incomplete copies remain, both in private collections. Serhii Bilokin first proposed the idea of the Narbut Anthology to Rodovid Press ten years ago, and now it is finally came to fruition with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation. This is thanks to Bohdan Zavitii, Anastasia Bilousova, and entire project team including designers Sasha Bychenko, Oleksii Salnykov, and Alina Bielova. The Institute of Art History, Folklore, and Ethnology, the National Art Museum of Ukraine, the Kharkiv Art Museum, and others assisted with the illustrations and texts. Heorhii Narbut was a decisive figure in twentieth-century Ukrainian art, yet the Communist taboos of the Soviet period ensured he remained unknown to a broader audience. This unique project fleshes out a significant aspect of art history and puts certain things back where they belong. Content and introduction: Serhii Bilokin Editors: Anastasiia Bilousova and Bohdan Zavitii Design: Sasha Bychenko and Numo Team

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Memoirs

2001

I, Me, and Myself... (and around): Memoires

by Yuriy Shevelyov

The first volume of memoirs of the outstanding Ukrainian scholar Yuriy Shevelyov (Sherekh) is an invaluable source for understanding Ukrainian history of the first half of the twentieth century. The publication is first illustrated and contains 248 photographs; part of them - from the Shevelyov family album - is published for the first time. The text is complemented by 1626 notes and a name index. The preface is written by the compiler of the publication, Mr. Serhiy Vakulenko.

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Teaching, Language & Reference

October 2025

Into being

The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform

by Lily Dunn

The acclaimed author of Sins of My Father shares the secrets of writing a new, transformative kind of memoir. Into being is an essential guide to writing memoir in a radical and empowering way. Drawing on her experience as a memoirist and a teacher of creative writing, Lily Dunn presents the ground-breaking idea that the craft of memoir itself can offer a form of transformation. Dunn demystifies the memoirist's art, helping readers to find meaning in raw experience and elevate the personal to the universal. She considers intriguing questions, from why our memories give greater significance to certain events to how we can write honestly without intruding too far into the lives of our loved ones. She also explores how writers are extending the memoir form to create something hybrid, playful and subversive. In an age of social media, filled with confessions, re-inventions and distortions of the self, the question of what it means to be an individual is more urgent than ever. Into being shows readers how to turn writing memoir into a journey of discovery - one that can be shared with the whole world.

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A ZEN MONK

by Taisen Deshimaru

A story of bravery and false starts, Autobiography of a Zen Monk candidly recounts the author’s development from a highly mischievous Japanese boy into a world-renowned Sensei (Teacher) of Zen. While countless memoirs exist written by Zen students and teachers, few are as engaging and as tantalizing as Taisen Deshimaru’s. Looking back at his early life, growing up in Japan, from the viewpoint of his status as a Zen teacher in Paris, the author reflects on his earliest misadventures—from defacing a valuable painting of Bodhidharma as a child, to turning the “Zen stick” on a young monk during a retreat. Adventures abound with stories about alcohol and women, during his student years, and his activities during World War II in working for the arms industry in Malaysia, where he was sympathetic to the underground freedom movement. This first English-language translation of Taisen Deshimaru’s autobiography will be prized for its clear and honest documentation of this great master’s life. Many people all over the world have been influenced by Deshimaru’s Zen teachings, especially his book on Zen and the martial arts. This memoir fills an important gap in our knowledge of his teacher, Kodo Sawaki’s influence on the world of Zen. The story of how Deshimaru met Sawaki as a boy, even slept in the same room with him, and later received monastic ordination is the story of a lifelong friendship of two extraordinary characters in the history of modern Zen. Deshimaru’s influence extends beyond Zen practitioners, though, especially in those interested in the martial arts, as he touches on his martial arts experience as a young man and offers a look into the master’s early training. Additional interest extends to historians who recount the supposed “scandals” of Zen masters’ participation in the war effort. Although Deshimaru’s viewpoint is decidedly subjective, he was intimately acquainted with priests and generals alike, and approaches the difficult subject with a refreshing lack of judgmental disdain which counterbalances many other more lopsided works. Translator, Richard Collins, a longtime Zen practitioner, and currently the Abbot of the New Orleans Zen Temple, is a literature scholar and author of several books including No Fear Zen, Hohm Press, 2014. His knowledge of the subject matter and his finesse with language combine to make this book a delightful read for those who appreciate wellwritten memoir.

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The Arts

2021

Ukrainian Artistic Avant-Garde: Manifestos, Essays, Talks, Memoirs, Letters

by Dmytro Horbachov (editor)

The publication is an anthology of rear and previously unpublished texts written by thirty-four representatives of the Ukrainian avant-garde: artists who act as critics and scientists; art critics acting as analysts and conceptualists; poets and writers who act as creators and analysts of contemporary artistic forms. The reader receives a thematic, personal, and philosophical variety of views on the creative "systematisation" of the artistic form in Ukrainian visual art of the 1910s-1930s. The reader is put amidst the creative disputes, the struggle of ambitions and the agreements on methodologies, a kaleidoscope of multidirectional search for artistic truth and seclusion in the social inevitability of historical events The genre of the texts vary. From a didactic nature of journalistic essays to the sharpness of manifestos and sometimes angry desperation of discussions — forms a stereoscopic sketch of trends and groups of that time in all the complexity, inconsistency, and therefore poignancy of the proclaimed positions.

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Biography & True Stories

March 2022

Body Work

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and writing guide, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the challenges it presents. How do we write about the relationships that have formed us? How do we describe our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean to have your writing, or living, dismissed as "navel-gazing"-or else hailed as "so brave, so raw"? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong? Drawing on her journey from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor-via addiction and recovery, sex work and academia-Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas-and occasional notes of caution-to anyone who has ever hoped to see their true self reflecting back from the open page.

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Biography & True Stories

March 2022

Body Work

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and writing guide, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the challenges it presents. How do we write about the relationships that have formed us? How do we describe our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean to have your writing, or living, dismissed as "navel-gazing"-or else hailed as "so brave, so raw"? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong? Drawing on her journey from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor-via addiction and recovery, sex work and academia-Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas-and occasional notes of caution-to anyone who has ever hoped to see their true self reflecting back from the open page.

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Biography & True Stories

March 2022

Body Work

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and writing guide, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the challenges it presents. How do we write about the relationships that have formed us? How do we describe our bodies, their desires and traumas? What does it mean to have your writing, or living, dismissed as "navel-gazing"-or else hailed as "so brave, so raw"? And to whom, in the end, do our most intimate stories belong? Drawing on her journey from aspiring writer to acclaimed author and writing professor-via addiction and recovery, sex work and academia-Melissa Febos has created a captivating guide to the writing life, and a brilliantly unusual exploration of subjectivity, privacy, and the power of divulgence. Candid and inspiring, Body Work will empower readers and writers alike, offering ideas-and occasional notes of caution-to anyone who has ever hoped to see their true self reflecting back from the open page.

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January 1983

The Memoires of a Syrian Prince

Abu'l-Fida', Sultan of Hamah (672-732/1273-1331). Translation with an Introduction

by Herausgegeben von Holt, P. M.

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July 2025

Intimate afterlives of empire

Memory and decolonisation in autobiography

by Astrid Rasch

Through close readings of almost twenty autobiographies written after the break-up of the British Empire, the book examines how individuals engage with the changing narrative landscape brought about by decolonisation. It considers the autobiographies less for what they may teach us about the moment remembered and more as windows on the act of remembering. This adds a crucial dimension to our understanding of the legacies of colonialism and how the ongoing process of decolonisation is reflected on the level of the individual. It argues that autobiographers are at once influenced by and seek to influence the cultural memory of empire and its legacies, and the authors' own position in both. Situated at the intersection of imperial/decolonisation history, memory studies, and life writing studies, the book uncovers this intimate afterlife of empire.

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The Dukduk's Whimper

by Jalal Barjas

An IPAF winner’s memoir on his formation as a writer and reader Our lives are essentially a story and we are the characters. “The Duduk’s Whimper” is story of Jalal Barjas, beginning with his birth in 1970 and ending in 2021. His story is inspired by his life as a human being and a writer with little time at his disposal. It is a life that intersects with many others in our Arab world. The idea for this biography/novel was born out of a question the author asked about his motivations for reading, writing, and traveling. The result is a candid, bold narrative that presents his image to the reader without idealism or heroism. This memoir unfolds along three lines: the biography of the writer, the stories of three places, and the tale of three books he read. Through these narratives, Barjas reveals unknown aspects of his life and the difficult path he had to take to reach his esteemed position in the literary world. He takes us on an entertaining and profound journey with a high level of language that reveals many aspects that are not only relevant to him, but also to everyone who reads this book. It delves deeply into reading, writing, travel, love, failure, success, and the formation of human joys and sorrows starting from childhood. “The Duduk’s Whimper” is the story of a writer who only has three hours a day to write, yet he managed to establish himself as one of the great writers.

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October 1975

Der Fall Rivière herausgegeben von Michel Foucault

Materialien zum Verhältnis von Psychiatrie und Strafjustiz

by Michel Foucault, Wolf Heinrich Leube

Michel Foucault und seine Mitarbeiter sind im Zusammenhang von Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Psychiatrie und Strafjustiz auf den Fall Rivière gestoßen, über den 1836 eine ungewöhnlich umfangreiche Dokumentation publiziert worden war, u. a. ein Memoire Pierre Rivières über die Beweggründe zu seiner Tat: der Ermordung seiner Mutter, seiner Schwester und seines Bruders. Warum hat sich über diese Dokumentation – und insbesondere über das Memoire Pierre Rivières –, nachdem sie einmal das lebhafte Interesse der Ärzte erregt hatte, alsbald wieder absolutes Schweigen gebreitet? Die Autoren der »Anmerkungen« zu den im ersten Teil des vorliegenden Bandes abgedruckten Dokumenten analysieren einige auf den ersten Blick verdeckte Funktionen der vielfach sich überlagernden, sich kreuzenden und gegeneinander gerichteten Diskurse, die scheinbar alle von derselben Sache sprechen – einem Fall von Verwandtenmord –, gleichzeitig aber Gefechte sind. So kämpfen die Ärzte gegeneinander, gegen die Justiz und gegen Rivière; so kämpft die Justiz u. a. um die Anerkennung medizinischer Gutachten und die Zuerkennung mildernder Umstände; so sind die Zeugenaussagen von Dorfbewohnern auch Versuche, mit dem in ihrer Mitte begangenen Verbrechen fertig zu werden … Das Dossier wurde zusammengestellt, bearbeitet und mit Anmerkungen versehen im Rahmen einer Kollektivarbeit am Collège de France von: Blandine Berret-Kriegel, Gilbert Burlet-Torvic, Robert Castel, Jeanne Favret, Alexandre Fontana, Michel Foucault, Georgette Legée, Patricia Moulin, Jean-Pierre Peter, Philippe Riot, Maryvonne Saison.

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Short stories

2022

After the 24th

by Vladyslav Ivchenko

“Excuse me, but the war has begun.” These words of the writer Vladyslav Ivchenko marked the beginning of February 24th. It was the day when life changed forever. Standing in line at the draft board, he realized that he had his own war story now. “My granny had one, my parents had none, and I was always sure that I’d never have mine own.” After the 24th is a collection of short stories and poetry about war, a record of what Ukrainians have experienced and are experiencing now. The book is about those who are ready to die for freedom and those who are ready to survive at any cost; it is about lovers and beloved; it is about losses that make one howl in pain, and laughter that helps preserve sanity. It is about betrayal and fear; it is about those at the frontlines and those away from them. Something is true to life and something is fictional. Be careful as the texts are deceptive, and often the ones you will believe to be true, will turn out to be fictional and vice versa.

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True stories

2022

Ferocious February 2022. Evidence of the first days of the invasion.

by Darya Bura, Evgenia Podobna

On February 24, 2022, Ukrainians woke up in another reality: the sky was torned by the roar of Russian fighter jets, Russian missiles were flying at Ukrainian cities, subway stations have become the shelters. In this new reality, the concept of absolute security no longer existed. The first days of the war were very emotional and scary. You don't know what to do, you can't keep up with the news. You can't do anything because of these news... For not allowing anyone to rewrite our history, to put in it something that did not exist, like the Russians do when they swear black is white, we decided to collect people's memories of the first days of a full-scale invasion. To remember...

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Biography & True Stories

October 2020

Volunteers

The Strength of Those Who Care

by Natalka Poznyak-Khomenko

The book Volunteers: The Strength of Those Who Care tells about volunteering as a social phenomenon that has powerfully declared itself since 2014, when conscious citizens joined in the development and support of the Ukrainian army. The book includes 28 stories told in first person, which represent various aspects of volunteering related to the Russian-Ukrainian war: support for the army, aid to the wounded, assistance for the population that became hostage to this war.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

October 2021

Outcasts: Punished by Space

by Tamara Vronska, Olena Stiazhkina

Minusnyky (outcasts) are a verbal and social creation of the Soviet state, which, through repression, discrimination and control, created communities of "friends" and "foes", branding the latter with punitive methods and forming a specific language to denote them. The book talks about a special category of citizens of the "Soviet country" who were recognized as "socially dangerous" and punished by a ban on settling in a number of areas of the USSR after forced "removal" from their places of permanent residence, as well as serving time in the Gulag system. The researchers analyze the process of constructing the Bolshevik concept of the geographical isolation of the "disloyal" and determine the logic of creating the Soviet space as a space of prohibitions. The regularity of the Soviet territories is analyzed not only as a manifestation of Stalin's repressive policy but also as an organic part of the functioning of the totalitarian mechanism which picked up momentum when the Bolsheviks seized power.

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Humanities & Social Sciences

July 2002

From Beveridge to Blair

The first fifty years of Britain's welfare state 1948–98

by Harry Bennett, Margaret Jones, Rodney Lowe

The creation of Britain's welfare state in 1948 was an event of major international importance. Designed to provide a concise introduction to the evolution of both the structure of the welfare state and attitudes towards it. Concentrates on five core services: health care, education, social security, the personal social services and housing. For each service it examines the original vision, the attempts to implement this vision, the resulting complexities and controversies and, above all, the impact on individual 'customers'. A wide range of documentary evidence is used, including published and unpublished government sources, political memoirs, newspaper exposés and personal testimony. ;

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Mind, Body, Spirit

FROM MEDIC TO MYSTIC

The True Story of an Academic Physician’s Journey into the Paranormal

by Dr Anona Blackwell

In this candid memoir, Dr. Anona Blackwell shares her remarkable journey from orthodox-trained medic to unapologetic mystic. Chronicling her dual professional life as a highly respected, Lancet-published academic physician while also investigating powerful psychic and paranormal experiences in her work and personal life, Dr. Blackwell presents compelling evidence for telepathy, clairvoyance, near-death experiences (NDEs), life after death, the power of prayer, non-ordinary reality, and more. By sharing her forays into non-ordinary reality Dr. Blackwell encourages others to share their own paranormal experiences.

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True stories

2018

History's Carnival

by Leonid Plyushch

A memoir and autobiography of Ukrainian mathematician Leonid Pliushch (1939-2015), one of the most famous dissidents of the USSR. It was first published in the West in 1979 in five languages (Russian, French, English, Italian and Ukrainian) and it belongs to the "treasury" of anti-totalitarian resistance literature. Analyzing his life path from his postwar childhood to the Dnipropetrovsk psychiatric prison, where he was thrown with the beginning of repressions in 1972, Leonid Pliushch creates an invaluable panoramic portrait of the generation of "sixties", which was given a chance to free their mind from authoritarianism. The text is presented in the author's edition of 2002 with appendices and foreword by Oksana Zabuzhko.

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by Myroslav Marynovych

by Bohdan Zavitii (compiler)

by Yuriy Shevelyov

The radical craft of memoir and its power to transform

by Lily Dunn

by Taisen Deshimaru

by Dmytro Horbachov (editor)

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

The Radical Power of Personal Narrative

by Melissa Febos,

Abu'l-Fida', Sultan of Hamah (672-732/1273-1331). Translation with an Introduction

by Herausgegeben von Holt, P. M.

Memory and decolonisation in autobiography

by Astrid Rasch

by Jalal Barjas

Materialien zum Verhältnis von Psychiatrie und Strafjustiz

by Michel Foucault, Wolf Heinrich Leube

by Vladyslav Ivchenko

by Darya Bura, Evgenia Podobna

The Strength of Those Who Care

by Natalka Poznyak-Khomenko

by Tamara Vronska, Olena Stiazhkina

The first fifty years of Britain's welfare state 1948–98

by Harry Bennett, Margaret Jones, Rodney Lowe

The True Story of an Academic Physician’s Journey into the Paranormal

by Dr Anona Blackwell

by Leonid Plyushch

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