Theodore Odrach - Biography

Biography

Theodore Odrach was an émigré writer living in Toronto, Canada from 1953 until his death in 1964. He authored several novels and books of short stories in the Ukrainian language, all of which were published in Buenos Aires, New York, Winnipeg, and Toronto. Wave of Terror, published by Academy Chicago Publishers, translated by his daughter, Erma Odrach, with an introduction by T.F. Rigelhof, 2008, is his first novel to appear in English.

Over the past few years, many of Odrach's translated short stories have been printed in literary magazines, both in Canada and the United States. To mention a few: The Connecticut Review; WRIT; Mobius: The Journal of Social Change; The New Quarterly; Antigonish Review; Translation - Columbia University.

In 1993 a book of short stories by Odrach won an honorable mention from the Translation Center at Columbia University, NY.

Born on February 13, 1912 near Pinsk, Belarus, at that time a part of Czarist Russia, Odrach's original family name was Sholomitsky. At the age of nine, after committing a petty offense, Odrach was sent by Polish authorities who then controlled the area to a reform school for boys in Vilnius, Lithuania (then a part of Poland). After serving his time, doing odd jobs around town, he enrolled in the Stefan Batory University (now Vilnius University), where he went on to earn a degree in philosophy and ancient history.

With the Soviet invasion of Vilnius in 1939, Odrach fled and returned to his native Belarus, landing a position as headmaster of a grammar school outside of Pinsk. Denounced by the Soviets, Odrach headed south to Ukraine and worked as editor of an underground newspaper, The Informer. Still pursued by the Soviets and ultimately forced into hiding, Odrach managed to escape into Slovakia by way of the Carpathian Mountains. He then traveled across Europe, and in 1953 settled in Toronto, Canada.

In his Toronto home Odrach produced four novels and two books of short stories, all written in the Ukrainian language. He died on October 7, 1964.

Set during WWII, Odrach’s works vividly recreate the chaos and turbulence of the era. Between 1939 and 1945, the region passed from Polish sovereignty to Soviet rule, withstood German invasion and Nazi occupation, and ultimately was repossessed by the Soviet Union. With the authority of an eyewitness, Theodore Odrach depicts a land torn apart by invasion, counter-invasion, occupation and insurrection. His themes are subtly illuminated in carefully focused episodes which document their impact on the lives of ordinary people. – Jane Wilson