writes about war from a young person's view #bannedbyrussia
I’m thrilled to be touring British Columbia (North Vancouver and Sea to Sky Region) with the Canadian Children’s Book Centre during the week of April 26th! I’d love to visit your school or library! Please help spread the word. Here’s my info sheet with application details.
It was such an honour to be a reading series presenter for the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National University of Cherkasy last Thursday. The session was via Zoom and made available to the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies.
The questions were perceptive and wide-ranging. I was particularly heartened by this feedback from students Bohdan Khmelnytskyi National University of Cherkasy.
Thanks, Coco Kettmann, for these great questions about Under Attack, book #1 of the Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy.
Many thanks so educator extraordinaire Oksana Levytska, her team, and her fabulous students. It was a pleasure to discuss my books set during various times in Ukraine’s history, particularly my books set during the Holodomor, and my Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy, which is set during a time these students are all too familiar with. It was a dual presentation, with some students in person, and others attending remotely.
Copies of Under Attack, book #1 of my Kidnapped from Ukraine trilogy had been pre-purchased through Koota Ooma, my favourite Ukrainian book and gift store, so I got to know the names of each student as I signed them.
After all of the books were signed and I was packing up my things, it was thrilling to see so many students reading their brand new books — an author’s dream.
Ms Levytska invited me to attend the school’s Holodomor assembly. I was moved by students’ dedication and talent in honouring those who had perished in this genocide orchestrated by Stalin.
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.
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.
