The New York Group of Poets (also: ''The New York Group of Ukrainian Poets'', or ''The New York Group''; Ukrainian: Нью-Йоркська Група; N'iu-Iorks'ka hrupa) was a literary movement of Ukrainian refugee modernist poets (and artists) that gathered in New York City during the mid-1950s, imbuing

Contemporary Ukrainian literature Contemporary Ukrainian literature refers to Ukrainian literature since 1991, the year of both Ukrainian independence and the collapse of the Soviet Union. From that year on, censorship in the Soviet Union ceased to exist and writers were able to br ...

with avant-garde ideas and with new poetic forms. The poets eagerly experimented and embraced fashionable artistic and philosophical trends as

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, magic realism, and existentialism. While the label "New York Group" commonly refers to seven founding members, namely

Bohdan Boychuk Bohdan Boychuk ( ua, Богдан Сергійович Бойчук; born 30 May 1996) is a Ukrainian professional footballer who plays for Bukovyna Chernivtsi. Career Boychuk is a product of the FC Olimpik Donetsk and Metalist Kharkiv Youth Sch ...

Yuriy Tarnawsky Yuriy Tarnawsky (born February 3, 1934) is a Ukrainian-American writer and linguist, one of the founding members of the New York Group, a group of avant-garde Ukrainian diaspora writers, and co-founder and co-editor of the journal ''New Poetry' ...

Bohdan Rubchak Bohdan may refer to: * Bohdan, a Slavic masculine name, a variant spelling of Bogdan (which includes a list of people named Bohdan as well as Bogdan) * Bohdan, Podlaskie Voivodeship, a village in Poland * Bohdan (bus) Bogdan ( uk, Богда ...

, Zhenia Vasylkivska,

Emma Andijewska Emma Andijewska (or ''Emma Andiievska'', uk, Емма Андієвська, link=no) (born March 19, 1931 in Stalino) is a modern Ukrainian poet, writer and painter. Her works are marked with surrealist style. Some of Andijewska's works have ...

, Patrytsiia Kylyna (a pen name of

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), and

Vira Vovk Vira Ostapivna Selianska ( uk, Ві́ра Оста́півна Селя́нська, pen name Vira Vovk ( uk, Ві́ра Вовк; 2 January 1926 – 16 July 2022) was a Ukrainian writer, critic and translator. She wrote in Ukrainian, German a ...

, it also includes five poets who joined the founders of the group more than a decade later: George Kolomyiets,

Oleh Kowerko Oleh Kowerko (Ukrainian: Олег Коверко; born May 7, 1937) is a Ukrainian and American poet. He is a member of the New York Group of Poets. He served as a President of the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA). Life and career He ...

, Marco Carynnyk, Roman Babowal, and Maria Rewakowicz. These latter poets betrayed the same inclination toward metrical experimentation and display continuity in themes. The New York Group's most active period spans approximately fifteen years, from the mid-1950s until the early 1970s and coincides with the publication of its annual poetry almanac ''Novi poezii'' (New Poetry). In 1990 Boychuk and Rewakowicz, in cooperation with the

Writers' Union of Ukraine The National Writers' Union of Ukraine ( uk, Національна спілка письменників України) (''НСПУ'') is a voluntary social-creative association of professional writers, poets, prose writers, playwrights, criti ...

, founded a literary magazine ''Svito-vyd'' in Kyiv, which continued publishing until 1999. The most iconic thematic innovations introduced by the New York Group Drew inspiration both from recent

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and from the Latin American boom while incorporating play elements, urban motifs, and erotica. The phenomenon of the New York Group provides an interesting study for exploring cultural and aesthetic ramifications of writers in exile. Having settled mostly in the United States, the poets welcomed their exilic condition, which had freed them from the constraints of both Socialist Realism and Censorship in the Soviet Union, while also nurturing their links with Ukraine by continuing to write poetry in their

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. This was their way of paying tribute to the poetic history of their language, while incorporating the formal and thematic innovations of the Free World. In fact, some critics drew parallels between the poets of the New York Group and the poets of the

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, although, arguably, the New York Group displays more affinity with the European modernist tradition, New Formalism, and the

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movements than with other American post-World War II literary movements.

Membership

The group was created by Bohdan Boychuk and

, with Bohdan Rubchak joining soon after.

Poets

*Zhenia Vasylkivska *

*Patricia Kylyna (

) *

*Maria Rewakowicz *Georges Kolomyiets *

*Marco Carynnyk *Roman Babowal

Artists

*Bohdan Pevny *Slava Gerulak *Jurij Solovij

References

{{Expand Ukrainian, Нью-Йоркська група, date=September 2017 American poetry in Ukrainian History of Ukrainian literature Ukrainian-American culture Ukrainian poetry 20th-century American poets American literary movements Culture of New York City