{"id":9672,"date":"2025-01-08T17:52:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T17:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/?p=9672"},"modified":"2026-02-14T18:08:55","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:08:55","slug":"thanks-for-the-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/thanks-for-the-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Thanks for the interview!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was a pleasure to speak with S\u00e9rgio at brant blog dot ca about my brand new book, Under Attack. Thanks so much for the interview!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Canadian-Ukrainian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is no stranger to exploring difficult topics. Her latest novel, Under Attack<\/em>, launched this week as the first installment in her new Kidnapped From Ukraine tackles themes of war, displacement, and survival through the eyes of a 12-year-old girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set in Mariupol, Ukraine, Under Attack<\/em> begins on the first day of the Russian invasion. It follows a family torn apart as bombs fall and chaos spreads. The story unfolds with twin girls and their parents separated during an attack. The narrative focuses on the mother and one daughter\u2019s harrowing experience surviving in a basement during the siege before being captured, forced through filtration camps, and separated. The girl ends up in a re-education in Russia and placed in a Russian home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skrypuch, who lives in Brantford, will launch Under Attack<\/em> with a public appearance at Riverside Bookshelf<\/strong> in Paris, Ontario<\/strong>, on Thursday, January 16, 2025<\/strong>, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.<\/strong> She has also offered to do a presentation at the Paris branch of the Brant Public Library for for local schools about the importance of historical accuracy and empathy in storytelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflecting on her writing journey, Skrypuch remains committed to uncovering untold stories and amplifying marginalized voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEmpathy and awareness are the keys to change,\u201d she said. \u201cIf this book can help even one reader understand the reality of war and inspire them to care, then it\u2019s done its job.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the book is fictional, Skrypuch says that its events are firmly grounded in historical accuracy and documented accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a novel, but everything that happens in it is true,\u201d Skrypuch said. \u201cI\u2019ve created fictional characters, but the events described are based on publicly available testimonies, including those presented to the International Criminal Court, which has charged Putin with war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skrypuch\u2019s decision to write the series was not made lightly. Initially hesitant, she was approached multiple times by her publisher, Scholastic, to tackle the ongoing conflict. Eventually, she recognized the urgency of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was discouraged by all the disinformation circulating about Ukraine,\u201d she explained. \u201cI felt I had the responsibility and the platform to tell this story accurately. So I set aside the book I was working on and plunged into this trilogy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A veteran author, Skrypuch, from Brantford, has made a career of highlighting overlooked stories from history, many focusing on Ukraine. Her first book, Silver Threads<\/em> (1996), addressed Ukrainian internment in Canada during World War I, while Enough<\/em> (2000) was the first commercially published children\u2019s book about the Holodomor\u2014Stalin\u2019s forced famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing these sensitive topics has often come at a personal cost. Skrypuch received death threats following the publication of Enough<\/em>, and in 2022 in response to the publication of Winterkill, her novel set during the Holodomor, she was officially banned from Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI consider being banned for life by Russia an honor,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ve faced backlash before, but I believe in telling the truth about history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her new trilogy continues this mission, focusing on Ukraine\u2019s current struggles. The research process was both rigorous and deliberate. Skrypuch avoided using personal stories shared by refugees she met, relying instead on documented evidence to avoid appropriating their experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spoken to many refugees who have hugged me and told me their stories, but I don\u2019t have the right to write them into my books,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir stories are still ongoing, and this war is still happening.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Skrypuch immersed herself in news reports, legal testimonies, and published survivor interviews to craft her narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empathy is central to her work. Skrypuch hopes Under Attack<\/em> will raise awareness about the stakes of the ongoing conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want readers to see Ukrainians as people, not statistics,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to ignore distant wars when you don\u2019t see the human cost. But history shows that ignoring injustices allows them to spread.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kidnapped From Ukraine<\/em> trilogy is aimed at readers aged 10\u201314, but Skrypuch believes it will resonate with adults as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI write from the perspective of a 12-year-old because that\u2019s my inner voice,\u201d she said. \u201cBut the themes\u2014family, survival, and hope\u2014are universal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second book in the series, Standoff<\/em>, is set for release on October 7, 2025, followed by the third, Still Alive<\/em>, on January 7, 2026. Skrypuch wrote all three in record time, completing the manuscripts within two years of the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was the fastest I\u2019ve ever written,\u201d she said. \u201cI felt the urgency to tell these stories while the events were still unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It was a pleasure to speak with S\u00e9rgio at brant blog dot ca about my brand new book, Under Attack. Thanks so much for the interview! Canadian-Ukrainian author Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch is no stranger to exploring difficult topics. Her latest novel, Under Attack, launched this week as the first installment in her new Kidnapped From Ukraine tackles themes … Continue reading “Thanks for the interview!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[262],"tags":[911,864,353,7,863],"class_list":["post-9672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-stories","tag-brantblog","tag-kidnapped-from-ukraine","tag-scholastic","tag-ukrainian","tag-under-attack"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9672"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10364,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions\/10364"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calla.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}