The meeting was held at the Central City Library named after M.L. Kropyvnytskyi. Liudmila Okhrimenko felt an acute need to consciously talk to Ukrainians about the painful things from the pages of her own books around the age of thirty. Although she made attempts to write poetry back in her school years.
As the author herself says: “Nothing comes out of nowhere. A person is born with a talent for a certain thing. All it takes is a push.”
For the woman, 2014 was the starting point of her full-fledged creative, writing life.
"Well, of course, it was written about the war. Because what was the impetus for it? Because what I saw, heard, and realized so impressed me... My first trip to the front line was to the city of Sloviansk. And everything I saw there impressed me... It was so difficult, you know? This is 2014, not 2022. Now we are adults who understand who and what we are dealing with. And back then, in 2014, it was impossible to realize," the writer recalls.
Fate gave her the opportunity to live and work in Crimea for a long time. Which naturally, after its annexation, was a reason for pain in the writer's soul and heart. And before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Liudmila Okhrimenko's family lived in Kharkiv. In the then Russified city, pani Liudmila was one of the first to start speaking Ukrainian.
"My father is Ukrainian. And when I answered for myself that I am Ukrainian, then the next question arose. Why am I speaking the language of my enemy being an Ukrainian. And also the language that is 1000 years younger than my native one and has 30% less vocabulary. And gradually I began not only to speak, but also to write," notes pani Liudmila.
Liudmila Okhrimenko has twelve books to her credit. Ten of them have already been published. Two more have been sent to participate in various competitions.
Mykolaiv became the 21st region of the country where the author personally presented the novel "Oscar" - the best novel on a war theme according to the conclusion of the jury members of the literary competition "Coronation of the Word" 2021. It tells the story of a Crimean Tatar who fought for the territorial integrity of Ukraine and was in captivity in the most terrible torture chamber in Donetsk.
"And the most important thing is not that he was captured. And not the capture itself. And the most important thing is that this man, an officer, a scout and a special forces soldier, found strength and courage in himself. He found the spirit, our Ukrainian spirit, that allowed him to defeat his enemy and get out of that torture chamber," the author emphasizes.
The conversation with the charismatic Kharkiv resident lasted almost two hours at the Central City Library named after M.L. Kropyvnytskyi. At the end of the meeting, the writer willingly answered numerous questions from readers.
"This is very important to meet with readers. For me, any such meeting is an experience, since I am a publisher. Work experience, promotion, experience of communicating with readers. How all this happens, it is very important for me. And I am grateful, because I was interested in it," - shared Mykolaiv publisher Iryna Hudym after the presentation.
