In Soviet Ukraine, writers would take orders from the state to produce works glorifying the authorities as a way to survive. Now, 20 years after the Soviet collapse, authors are often taking money not to produce works of literature with the help of their own muse, but to write texts to order from the publishers.
Critics say this way of producing literature is damaging the profession, but writers point out that being an author is a badly paid job, and it also allows publishers to cater to what readers want.
“Being a writer is a normal profession that does not fundamentally differ from the profession of, let’s say, a journalist,” said Serhiy Zhadan, a popular Ukrainian writer.
Zhadan had the idea to compile a short-story anthology called “Ukrainian Writers about Football” and ordered works from 11 well-known authors based on soccer.
“We specified only length and deadline for the stories, everything else was up to the writer,” said Svitlana Sklyar, chief editor of Family Leisure Club, which published the book.
“But what is actually wrong with this?” she asked.
Critics say it produces low-quality works.
“The book appeared to be opportunistic and just bad,” said fiction writers the Kapranovy brothers. “The writers represented there are mostly good, but one should know how to write to order.”
Writer Andriy Kokotyuha, who took part in the football project despite his dislike of the game, said the law of supply and demand applied to the literature market as much as any other profession.
“For example, in 2006-2007, the reader wanted books about politics, so I written biographies of Tymoshenko and Lutsenko. Now, fortunately, people stopped reading this. Now the readers and hence the publishers mostly buy historical novels,” he said.
“I do not understand this,” said Dmytro Cherednychenko, a poet, writer, translator, and member of the Writers Union of Ukraine, shaking his gray head. “This business stuff is not for literature, and all these ‘experts’ are not writers.”
Even though taking orders from the Soviet regime was seen as the main way for writers to survive, Cherednychenko said he had never written to order. “Only your soul can be your adviser on writing,” he said.
Some publishing houses like “Calvariya” and “Nora-print” said they refuse to order such literature. Others say they don’t see what the fuss is about. For example, “Grani-T” publishing house does produce ordered literature, calling it “artistic provocation.”
Most writers do not condemn orders and even encouraged them, even if they don’t write to order themselves.
“Writers should be proud of writing to order,” said Lyubko Deresh, a popular Ukrainian writer. “This means their skills and talents are appreciated.”
The president of the Ukrainian Association of Publishers and Booksellers, Olexandr Afonin, said this is a popular global trend and that most authors need the money.
However, writer Cherednychenko says they are degrading their profession.
“All these orders … This is like pop music,” he said. “All these [stories] sound alike. It can’t touch the soul, more than that – it ruins the soul.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
