Oleksandr Irwanetz

Born 1961 in Lviv/Ukraine.

Oleksandr Irwanetz was trained and worked as a teacher at different schools before he studied at the literary institute in Moscow from 1983 to 1989.

After his studies he worked for various newspapers. From 1993 to 1996 he attended a doctoral program at the literary institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

In 1985, Oleksandr Irwanetz founded the poets group Bu Ba Bu (Burkese-Buffon-Booth) together with Jurij Andruchowytsch and Wiktor Neborak.

Irwanetz has published poems, theater texts and prose since 1979, among others Ein kleines Stück vom Verrat. Für eine Darstellerin (A little piece of the betrayal. For one actress), theater play, published in its German translation with Bernd Bauer Verlag Berlin, 1993; Shadows of the Great Classic, collection of poems, Molod publishers in Kiev, 1991 and Fire During the Rain, collection of poems, Kamenjar publishers in Lviv, 1987.

In 2001, his play Lügner (Liar) premiered at the Theaterhaus Stuttgart and was part of the repertoire for the season of 2001/2002.

In 2007, Irwanetz was a finalist for the Angelus literary prize of the city of Wrocław in Poland. In 2002, he was granted a fellowship at KulturKontakt Austria. He was a Solitude travel fellow in 1995.