Emma Andijewska - Biography

Biography

Emma Andijewska was born on March 19, 1931 in Donetsk. Her father was a chemist-inventor, and her mother was an agriculturist by education. Emma Andiewska attended school only occasionally because of her frequent heavy diseases, and as such had to learn by herself. Because of this morbidity of the child her family moved to Vyshhorod in 1937, and later to Kiev in 1939. Emma Andijewska's father was shot by the Soviet authorities so that he could not transfer his discoveries to Germans.

Because of this the children and mother had to leave for Germany in 1943. The family lived in different cities of Germany, including in Berlin in an English zone of occupation. There Emma Andijewska has lain in plaster for three years being sick on a tuberculosis of a backbone. At the end of 1949 the family moved to Mittenwald, and later to Munich.

In 1957 Andijewska graduated from the Ukrainian Free University in Munich specializing in philosophy and philology. In 1957 the entire family moved to New York. In 1962 Andijewska was granted United States citizenship. In 1959 she married the Ukrainian literary critic, essayist and writer Ivan Koshelivets, and lived together with him for forty years. From 1955 to 1995 Andijewska worked as an announcer, a scripwriter and the editor of the Ukrainian department of Radio Liberty in Munich. She currently lives and works in Munich.

"Folk Poem about the Apple"
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Poem read by Emma Andijewska (in Ukrainian).

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