Vasyl Makhno Biography

Vasyl Makhno is a Ukrainian poet in New York, not an outsider there any more, but a grateful observer. In his own words, the move to the United States, where he has been living for five years now, happened rather unexpectedly. It doesn’t appear to be the case that he fled from any place or hurried to any particular destination. Perhaps it was this kind of ‘aimless’ emigration that saved Makhno the poet. His New York poetry proves that a Ukrainian poet abroad can not only exist, but also write. And write well at that.

Makhno was born in the town of Chortkiv in the Ternopil region. His life began in a manner completely typical for a Ukrainian poet: interest in literature in secondary school, then study at the pedagogical institute in Ternopil, then graduate school. In 1995, he defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of ‘The Artistic World of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych’, published as a book in 1999. The love of this Ukrainian poet for Antonych was also a rather typical phenomenon: almost every Ukrainian poet, especially of the younger generation, has acknowledged a debt to him. For that reason, Antonych and the Modernist tradition in general – both Ukrainian and global – are more than apparent in his work.