My guest this week is Nina Kuryata. Nina is a journalist, editor, media consultant and writer who, from 2011-19, was Head of the BBC News Ukrainian Service. I spoke to Nina on Ukrainian Independence Day in August to talk about her first novel Dzvinka (The Call) and to learn about what it means to be Ukrainian in the last days of the USSR and to discuss the role of independence. 

Nina refers to the trauma in not being allowed to be oneself and about how her creative journey has followed through since childhood. She talks about various stereotypes and reflects on why so many people who have read her novel, whose main character always has to prove that she exists, say that the story is about themselves!

We talk about what happens when our identity is defined through the lens of someone else, and we learn that Nina’s ancestors are from Poland. She refers to her family background, and what happens when there is a tension between what one’s parents say vs. what the ‘official’ educators are promulgating.

Nina refers to what comprises the largest collective trauma for Ukrainians and why her generation are the grandchildren of survivors. We learn why there are monuments to famine and why food and language are so important. We also find out why Nina’s novel amounts to a work of ‘autofiction’ and the reason that she changed the names of negative characters.

Nina discusses what she initially thought other people, including those from her home town in the Odessa region, would think of her book and how she initially wrote just a few pages per year. She wasn’t sure if anyone would publish it, only for the publisher to say it would be a best seller. It is now on its second edition, and we find out what Nina’s son, who was aged from 2-17 while the book was being written, makes of it.

About my podcast

I have been running my Nostalgia Interviews podcast since 2018. Through over 200 one-to-one interviews with guests from a range of backgrounds and professions – some of the guests are people I went to school or university with, others are leading figures in broadcasting, journalism, politics, film, music and education – the aim is to find out what it is that inspires our interests and passions.

What is it that shapes us? How did we end up where we are today in terms of the music, books, films, sporting events, fantasies, tragedies and the relationships and family members that brought us to where we are now?

These interviews are unscripted and are inspired by the great radio interviews I grew up listening to when I was in my teens and early twenties.

Click here to access all the episodes since May 2018: Nostalgia Interviews with Chris Deacy (audioboom.com).