The School of Creative Nonfiction with Maria Tumarkin was held by INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange in partnership with Mystetska Biblioteka from April 28 to May 1.
Maria Tumarkin is a Ukrainian-Jewish-Australian writer born and raised in Kharkiv. She is the author of four books of ideas: Traumascapes, Courage, Otherland, and Axiomatic. Tumarkin holds a PhD in Cultural History from the University of Melbourne, where she currently serves as co-head of the creative writing program.
Creative nonfiction defies easy definition. However, Dr. Tumarkin described its essential qualities as follows:
“Creative nonfiction writing is characterized by a deep interest in language and structure, openness to experimentation and play, and dynamism – the ability to move freely between different registers, between the personal and the cultural, the big and the small.”
The workshop brought together Ukrainian and international authors – thirteen attending in person and ten participating online. Over four days, participants explored topics such as ethics, trauma, the writer’s voice in nonfiction, and how to incorporate research into narrative. They also analyzed examples of nonfiction literature and worked on developing their texts. Kateryna Iakovlenko, a Victoria Amelina Fellow, shared her impressions of the workshop:
"When writing texts based on documentary testimony about traumatic events, you often face doubts and questions about how to approach them. Conversations about ethical approaches to this kind of writing are incredibly important, especially when they happen among those who encounter similar challenges in their daily work. Where is the boundary between the subject and the writer? What should the author’s stance be, and what is permissible within the text? Ultimately, how do you write about someone else’s trauma – and your own? What role does writing play in such cases?
I’m deeply grateful for the discussion that emerged during Maria Tumarkin’s workshop. It offers a way to engage with questions that often have no clear answers – yet their very presence is crucial”.
