Anthology "The Black Sea Whale" #1

Ukrainians, like a Black Sea whale, remained invisible to the world community for a long time. Hidden under heavy waves of propaganda, we spent centuries to rise to the surface, fight for our own name and reject the labels of "Little Russians" that the Russian Empire labeled us, or "Soviet people" that the USSR transformed us into.

The Black Sea Whale is, as it were, the song of a whale from the turbulent waters that wash the Russian-occupied Ukrainian Crimea and the sovereign Snake Island. This melody, picked up by the current and spread over thousands of kilometers, connects the past, present and future of Ukraine with the history and modernity of the Western world, of which we have always been a part.

This collection of stories is a second chance for the world: not only to listen, but also to hear the sincere voice of Ukrainians and discover the real Ukraine in all its multi-voiced palette. It tells about our everyday life and peculiarities, about who we were, who we are and who we can become. Some stories are so mundane that they seem like fiction, others are so amazing that they seem real. Sometimes they are ironic and funny, sometimes painfully sad, always self-critical, reflecting our life lessons.

The Black Sea Whale is an English-language collection of stories about Ukraine that offers the world not only to listen, but also to hear the real voice of Ukrainians and understand authentic Ukraine.

The anthology includes stories by Marichka Melnyk, Viktoria Antonenko, Maria Mitso (1959–2022), Serhiy Sumlenny, Oleksiy Dubrov, and Janusz Bugaisky, as well as illustrations by Ivan Volyanskyi, Kateryna Sova, Iryna Lysenko, Maryna Lutsyk, Oleg Smalya, Andriy Yermolenko, Olenka Zagorodnyk , Mykhailo Alexandrova, Oleksandra Tereza.

The editor-in-chief of the tertiary publication is Ulyana Suprun. The producer is Marko Suprun.