Iryna Feofanova

A script and fiction writer. The Ukrainian. Born on September 18, 1985 in Kyiv. Has obtained a degree in psychology, though has worked on TV – as a journalist in documentaries, reality shows, author of 20+ scripts for TV films and series. Up to February 24, 2022, Iryna was dwelling with her husband and little daughter in Irpin. She viewed herself as successful in career and happy in family life. However, the russians have rascally attacked the independent Ukraine and ruined her happiness: Iryna and her daughter had to flee to the west of Ukraine and then to Poland, while her husband has joined the Military Forces of Ukraine and has been fighting the russian invaders since March 2022.
From the first days of the war, Iryna has been writing – first notes in her diary, and then drama and prose pieces. Writing now is a kind of psychotherapy. As Iryna words it, you take your pain out into the text – and you feel relief. This way, mainly for the sake of relief, Iryna has written several plays (The Outlander, The Flawed People, Confession of the Military Wife). On October 27, 2022, there was an opening night of War, Kitchen and Eight Strangers in Chernihiv Regional Drama Theater. In summer 2022, during the residency program of the Book Institute in Krakow, Iryna wrote her first book – collection of short stories A Foe – a Friend – a Family. In her writing, Iryna most often raises the problems of displaced persons and refugees, challenges the military wives face, as well as adaptation of children to wartime reality. The book was published by Stary Lev Publishing House in 2023. Now Iryna lives in Irpin with her daughter, and struggles to put her life together: patches the holes in her house, waits for her husband to return from the war and believes in the victory.