HUBB (Helping Ukrainian Books and Booksellers) is pleased to report that the initial transfer of $10,000 sent to the Ukrainian Publishers and Booksellers Association via the Coral Gables Foundation has now been distributed and is helping to support over fifty booksellers and publishing professionals.

A decision was made by the UPBA to help as many individuals as possible. According to the organization’s president, Oleksandr Afonin, over fifty individuals working in the book trade have received grants of approximately $150 each. While hardly life-changing, the modest sums offer recipients an important feeling of international solidarity.

Among the recipients are employees of Bookworld (Knyholand, a mall housing a number of bookstores) in Kharkiv, as well as editors in the devastated city of Irpin, along with publishing professionals and booksellers in Kyiv, Ziaporzhia, and Ternopil.

The recipients include Victoria Volodymirvna Kalishevich, a bookseller in Kharkiv’s Bookworld . She and her family were among the first to experience the full force of the war when Kharkiv first came under assault over a year. Victoria’s apartment was shelled and severely damaged she and her husband were forced to live in a bomb shelter until they were able to find new lodging.

Iryna Serhiivna Ledenova, who also worked in Bookworld, lived in Mariupol. When her home was destroyed by a missile, she and her family were forced to relocate temporarily to a bomb shelter. During this time her father passed away from the stress induced by the war, leaving Iryna as the family’s sole provider. The grant will help Ms. Ledenova while she seeks to reestablish her life.

Yulia Mykolaivna Ivaniuk works in the PR department of the Ranok (Morning) Publishing House in Kharkiv, a city she loves with all her heart. When her own apartment building was damaged by shelling she and her family were forced to live in bomb shelters before moving to a refugee camp in Chernihiv. Her health and her nerves have been severely impacted by the war and she had to underground surgery.

Once the capital of Ukraine, Kharkiv is a city rich with literary history, home to the famous Slovo Building which once housed a group of progressive writers associated with the Futurists, many of whom were murdered during Stalin’s purges in the thirties. For the last decades the building has provided a residency for both Ukrainian writers as well as for writers visiting from abroad.

A complete list of recipients may be found on UPBA’s webpage: http://www.upba.org.ua/index.php/en/home-en-gb

 

“Watching the devastation in Ukraine is heartbreaking. The bookselling and publishing community there has been devastated. I, along with a group of concerned literary friends, Askold Melnyczuk, Carolyn Forche, Christopher Merrill and Jane Unrue, founded Helping Ukranian Books and Booksellers (HUBB) to directly support booksellers, editors, printers, warehouse workers, libraries and librarians, and others involved in the publishing industry so that literary culture in Ukraine survives. As you contemplate your end-of-year giving, join us and please consider HUBB as an option. You can click above or below to donate or check out our website – helpukranianbooks.org – for more information. Together we can make a difference.” -Mitchell Kaplan

The funds will be used to make direct grants to booksellers and others in the publishing industry in financial crisis; to help make printing and production facilities operational, and to assist in the purchase of books for libraries in regions affected by the war. As Oksana Bruy notes in a recent story in the Guardian: “The library is a community.” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/04/our-mission-is-crucial-meet-the-warrior-librarians-of-ukraine

An accounting of expenditures will be posted on the website of the Ukrainian Association of Booksellers and Publishers.

Thank you so much for your engagement and support of Ukraine.

For more information, contact: Askold Melnyczuk, [email protected]

 

Payment by Check

Please make checks payable to the “Coral Gables Community Foundation.”

Mail to: 
Coral Gables Community Foundation
1825 Ponce de Leon Blvd.
Box #447
Coral Gables, FL 33134

Be sure to put “HUBB” in the Memo line of your check.