Described by western scholars as the best prose writer in Ukraine, Volody-myr Dibrova will be appearing at Harborfrounts International Festival of Authors in Toronto. He is a professor of English and Ukrainian Literature at the Kyiv Mohyla Academy and has also taught at Harvard University and Pennsylvania State University. Writer Askold Melnyczuk has called Dibrova, born in 1951, a cultural hitch-hiker. Indeed, besides teaching and working around the world, Dibrovas interests have driven him to diverse cultural sources. His dissertation examined Irish literature. Dibrova has translated into Ukrainian works by Thomas Hardy, Henry David Thoreau, T.S. Eliot, and Eugene Ionesco among others. He was praised for his translation into Ukrainian of Samuel Becketts complex novel Watt. His creative work also spans a multitude of forms-plays, shorts stories, essays and novels. Dibrovas output often takes a subtly ironic look at life in bureaucratic society, examining the absurdity of situations that confront regular people. During the festival, he will read from his novellas Peltse and Pentameron which tell the story of how the Soviet system was sustained by individuals who never truly chose to support it but simply lacked the courage to oppose it. The New Pathway offers an excerpt from Pentameron, a novel about five dissatisfied, yet trapped individuals working at a Soviet research institute.

Volodymyr Dibrova will be reading from Peltse and Pentameron Tuesday, October 23, 2001 at 8 pm at the Premiere Dance Theatre. On Wednesday, October 24 at 5pm, Marc Glassman will interview Dibrova at the Lake Side Terrace. Both events are part of the International Festival of Authors at Harbourfront, 235 Queen’s Quay West in Toronto. Tickets can be ordered through the Harbourfront Box Office, 416-973-4000, open 7 days a week from 1 pm - 8:30 pm, fax 416-954-0366.