Taras Prokhasko (Ukrainian: Тарас Богданович Прохасько; born 16 May 1968) is a Ukrainian novelist, essayist and journalist. Together with Yuri Andrukhovych a major representative of the Stanislav phenomenon, a group of postmodernist writers in Ivano-Frankivsk.[1] Writing of Taras Prokhasko is often associated with magical realism, his novel «The UnSimple» has been compared to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. Biologist by education Prokhasko's prose has been called to have features of "philosophy of a plant" for its dense and meditative character.[2]
Biography
Taras Prokhasko decided to become a writer when he was 12 years old.[3]
From 1989 to 1991, he participated in student protests for Ukraine's independence, including the Revolution on Granite, and began writing during this time.[4]
From 1992 to 1993, after graduation, he worked various jobs, including as a school teacher, bartender, and animator at "Vezha" radio, as well as in art galleries, newspapers, on TV, and at the Ivano-Frankivsk Institute of Carpathian Forestry.[6]
From 1992 to 1994, he edited the avant-garde literary magazine "Chetver" (Ukrainian: Четвер, lit. 'Thursday').
In 1993 and 1994 he acted in short films "Flowers of St. Francis" and "Escape to Egypt" (winner of the Delyatyn video art festival). Worked as a journalist at "Express", "Postup", "Telekrytyka" and "Halytskyi korespondent" newspapers.
In 2004 Prokhasko spent several months in Kraków on the «Stowarzyszenie Willa Decjusza — Homines Urbani» foundation scholarship.[6]
Family
He is nephew of writer Iryna Vilde and brother of translator and essayist Yurko Prokhasko. Prokhasko is a father of three sons.[7]
