I (don't) know how to write about this

The beginning of the full-scale war affected all of us, leaving its mark on the lives of every Ukrainian and at the same time leaving a mark — the history of the experience at that time.

In the summer of 2022, writer Irena Karpa, in consultation with psychologist Larisa Voloshyna, launched an online course “Therapeutic Writing,” where she helped participants talk about the pain they had experienced and express their emotions in their own written stories. These classes proved useful and effective, so Irena continued to work in the direction of creative therapeutic writing and founded the course “My Story,” during which she invited students to work on their experiences during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. During the course, participants wrote works in which they shared their own stories or the stories of loved ones, creating stories based on real events. Realizing that these texts were truly worthy of attention, Irena Karpa was inspired by the idea: “to publish a collection of texts not by professional writers, but by “ordinary heroines in extraordinary circumstances.”

Thus, the collection of short prose “I Don’t Know How to Write About It” appeared. These are stories of living through the Russian-Ukrainian war, which, artistically reinterpreted and embodied in stories and essays, sound diverse, but are the voices of one common experience. “Speaking, telling, consulting aloud with our own is what keeps us going in the most difficult times,” says Irena Karpa. “These stories are just that.” The writer explains that therapeutic writing can liberate: through laughter, speaking out, recording emotions and events, splashing out anger and hatred, or love and gratitude, preserving the memory of those who are worth remembering. At the end of the collection, Irena Karpa invites readers to also try writing down their own story or simply their thoughts. “Because who else but you is the main character of your life?” she says.

Editor and compiler Zhanna Kapshuk helped Irena to embody the idea in the book. “This collection is like a conversation that has its own movement: from thoughts about home — through feelings of confusion, questions and uncertainty — through decisions made and the search for stability — through losses and pain and difficult experiences — through the search for light in the darkness — through laughter through tears or laughter thanks to humor — to the search for ways to oneself and one’s recovery,” Zhanna shares.

The collection includes works by authors who participated in Irena Karpa's writing course "My Story": Anastasia Narolska, Anna Goldin, Anna Sedykh, Anna Sofina, Viktoria Gerasymchuk, Viktoria Klymok, Viktoria Stepanenko, Halyna Chepurko, Hanna Pidlisna, Daryna Zernii, Dariya Solodovnyk, Iryna Shmyhelska, Karina Armlos, Kateryna Kompanenko, Kateryna Naumenko, Ksenia Yatsenko, Ksenia Lukyanenko, Marina Lazovik, Maria Karapata, Nadiya Badlo, Natalia Kraynyuk, Natalka Remez, Nila Revchuk, Oksana Kravets, Oksana Levchuk, Oksana Tunikova, Olesya Filipenko, Olga Dmytrenko, Olga Saulenko, Polina Biliaieva, Polina Voronova, Khrystyna Zhyvoglyad, Yara Mudra (Yaroslava Matveenko).