Barabash Svitlana Hryhorivna

(1941- 2007)
teacher, poetess

Svitlana Barabash was born on June 30, 1941, in the village of Oleksandrivka, Kirovohrad region. In 1958, she graduated with a medal from Oleksandrivka Secondary School No. 1.

She graduated from the Faculty of Philology at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She has worked as a journalist, teacher, and taught Ukrainian literature at Donetsk University and at the Kirovohrad Pushkin Pedagogical Institute.

She defended her PhD thesis on the work of Andrii Malyshko (1979) and her dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philology "The Work of Lina Kostenko in the Ideological and Artistic Context of the Era" (2004).

Honored Worker of Education of Ukraine, Corresponding Member of the International Personnel Academy, Doctor of Philology (2004), professor, literary critic, poet, member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine (2004).

Most recently, she headed the Department of Ukrainian Studies at the Kirovohrad National Technical University. She is the author of more than 200 scientific works on the history of Ukrainian literature, folklore, and contemporary literary process and culture.

The following works were published separately: "The Magic Source of Poetry" (1985), "The Heart Is Free and Songful" (1989), "The Soul Will Be Enlightened by the Universe of Eyes", "The Poetic World of Lina Kostenko", "Lina Kostenko: The Philosophy of Poetic Painting" (2003), "Lina Kostenko's Lyrics of Love: An Attempt to Comprehend" (2003), "Lina Kostenko's Poetic Historiosophy: The Immortality of the Spirit" (2003), etc.

Author of the collection of poems "Golden Berths" (1998). Together with B. Kuzyk, she compiled a collection of Ukrainian folk songs "Songs from Mother's Voice" (2003). She is the host of the journalistic program "Svitlana Barabash's Living Room" on Kirovohrad Regional Television.

Winner of the V. Vynnychenko Prize of the Kirovohrad Regional Newspaper "Narodne Slovo" and the Regional Literary Prize named after Yevhen Malaniuk for the book "The Soul Will See the Universe of the Eyes... Poetry of Lina Kostenko: A Monograph" in the nomination of literary criticism and journalism (2005).

She died on April 27, 2007.