writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
Thank you, Centre for Ukrainian Studies, University of Manitoba, for this invitation to speak about Standoff, book #2 of my Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy. Looking forward to lots of questions.
CUCS Lecture Series
How and why Marsha Skrypuch wrote the “Kidnapped from Ukraine” trilogy
Date and Time: Thursday, December 4, 2025, 12 PM CST
Location: Online via Zoom
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://umanitoba.zoom.us/meeting/register/XUP5uT77ShygI7Qeee7h2g
In 2024, I was honoured to see that Nigerian literary scholar, Eyoh Etim had written an insightful paper titled Memories of Women and Children’s Representation in Marsha Skrypuch’s Making Bombs for Hitler and Tiyam be Zeleza’s Smouldering Charcoal so when Dr. Etim contacted me for a video interview, I jumped at the opportunity to connect. Here’s the link to that interview. There are three authors interviewed in this session and my portion is at the beginning. Thank you, Dr. Etim, for all that you do!
One day after the PYI conference, I traveled back to Toronto to participate in a new initiative at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church & St. Volodymyr Cathedral of Toronto, organized by Artem Galchuk. It was interesting to hear the other speakers, including authors Mykola Latyshko, and Alla Topchii. I was particularly interested in Anastasia Baczynskyj’s presentation about the early Ukrainian community in Toronto. Koota Ooma was there with a wonderful array of books, including mine.
It was an honour and an angst to be asked to give the final keynote at this year’s Packaging Your Imagination Conference. I attended my first PYI way back in 1993 and it inspired and focused me to such an extent that I was able to revise and submit several children’s book manuscripts I had on the go, and within months, I had a yes for my first picture book, Silver Threads.
The final keynote is a memorial lecture, honouring Claire Mackay, who was a founding member of CANSCAIP, a force to be reckoned with (in a very good way) — and she was funny, brilliant and kind. The Peter and Eleanor Daniels Foundation sponsors this award. Here’s a pic with Elly Daniels, a woman who does tremendous things in support of arts in Canada.
My talk was very well received. The audience gave me a standing ovation. Many hugs and tears followed.
I sat in on fantastic and inspiring speakers all day long, which probably wasn’t the best way to prepare for doing a keynote, but heck, how could I not? It was a stellar lineup.
I grabbed some screenshots taken by friends and posted on social media (must learn to speak without flailing my arms around!)
What a wonderful, tearful, emotional event this was!
My friend and writing buddy, Sheryl Azzam, died before her first novel was published. But it is being published, and Sheryl’s brilliance, empathy and compassion lives on. Today, Quill & Quire did a feature story on Sheryl and her novel, Red Flags and Butterflies. Here’s the link:
Here are some pics from last night’s book launch for Standoff, book 2 in my Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy. Thanks so much to Jen Rudyk for taking them. Had I been thinking, I would have taken a pic of the audience: it was a full house. I was very impressed with Griffin, in the blue shirt, who bought a whole whack of books, plus brought in a couple of well-thumbed copies from home to get signed. He asked such great questions and knew a lot about WWII and WWI history. Sergio from Brant blog had been waiting patiently for an interview so once all the books were signed, Jen got a pic of him doing the interview.
Thank you The Ukrainian Village presented by Village Ukraina Dancers for hosting last night’s book launch for Standoff, book 2 of the Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy! It was wonderful to see so many people wearing blue and yellow and Ukrainian embroidered blouses in support of Ukraine. For those who were not able to make it to the launch but who still want an autographed book, please visit the Riverside Bookshelf 32A Dundas St W, Paris, ON N3L 1G2
