Introduction to the Series
The turn of a century marks a pause in time — a pause that impels us to take stock, assess the extent and significance of societal changes, and make sense of our individual and collective experiences. When the end of a cen¬tury coincides with the millennium, this need to engage in retrospective analyses is intensified.
The purpose of this series is to make accessible to English readers the selected works of Ukrainian women writers, most of whom have not been previously translated into English, and, in so doing, enhance our understanding of women’s slow, difficult, and ongoing trek to political, economic and social equality — a trek on which women in Ukraine embarked over a century ago.
The works selected range from vignettes and sketches to novelettes and novels. Together they constitute an unsystematic but compelling social history of an era during which the mortar of social mores, religious beliefs, and gender distinctions began to crumble as successive political and ideological cataclysms wreaked havoc with time-honoured personal and societal relations.
The authors are not equally talented or skilled. What they have in common is an appreciation of the power of literature, be it as an avenue of self- actualisation or a vehicle of social activism. In addition to national, political, and educational issues, they address matters of gender which cut across ethnic and social divisions, and explore the power and often devastating consequences of social conditioning.
They do not, of course, speak with one voice. For some, women’s concerns are overshadowed by larger issues of political freedom, cultural autonomy, and socio-economic reform. Their goals range from group emancipation to individual freedom, with many initially defining their emerging status in terms of a synthesis of traditional female roles, immediate community responsibilities, and more general humanitarian imperatives.
More importantly, whatever the subject matter, they observe and interpret experience from a female perspective. They intuitively understand that women forge their identities in the context of relationships, appreciate the power inherent in this need for connectedness and emotional wholeness, and demonstrate a keen sensitivity to both the promise and the human cost of change.
Their voices are loud and strong, what they have to say is worth hearing, and their impact should not be confined to one time or place. Translating their stories into English permits their message to transcend temporal, geographical, and linguistic boundaries.
The difficulties inherent in the process of translation were compounded by textual variations and vexing problems of transliteration. In the case of the earlier works, there were two other problems: archaic and dialectal language, and nineteenth century stylistic conventions. Ultimately, it was the criterion of readability that informed the many difficult decisions that had to be made.
A biographical note about each author anchors her writings in a social and historical context. No other analyses are provided; the works are allowed to speak for themselves.

- Sonia Morris, Editor
Former Assistant Dean of the College of Education,
Former Head of the Department of Educational Psychology,
College of Education, University of Saskatchewan

- Roma Franko, Translator
Former Head of the Department of Slavic Studies
and the Department of Modem Languages and Literatures,
College of Arts and Science, University of Saskatchewan