Iryna Bondarenko

Literary columnist and books editor. For over a decade she has written about contemporary Ukrainian prose — from debut collections to the season-defining novels. Her weekly review column deliberately avoids plot summary in favour of a conversation about language, structure and tone. She moderates public discussions at book fairs and compiles the annual what-to-read selections. She holds that criticism should read as well as the book it examines, and that an honest negative review serves the reader better than polite silence. She takes particular care with debut authors: every year she selects several first books and accompanies them with extended analyses, convinced that criticism matters most at the debut stage. She never writes about a book she has not finished, and always names the edition and print run she quotes from. Her column carries no anonymous references: when a specific editorial decision is at stake, she names the house and the role. Criticism afraid to name its addressee, she says, stops being criticism.