Episode 105: Erin Litteken, author of The Memory Keeper of Kyiv
Erin Littenken talks about her debut novel, The Memory Keeper of Kyiv.
A share of the proceeds from the novel will be donated to DEC's Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
The Memory Keeper of Kyiv is a dual timeline story that follows Katya’s life beginning in the 1930s during the Holodomor, a man-made famine instigated by Stalin and 70 years later with Katya’s granddaughter facing her own struggles and learning of her grandmother’s past.
Erin talks about the journey she took to becoming an author, the familial connection that inspired her to write about Ukraine, and what it was like to publish a book about Ukraine as they experience their current crisis with Russia.
Don’t miss Erin’s great-grandmother’s recipe for borsch (which is a staple in Ukraine), and book club questions at Book Club Bites. As Erin says “Borsch is a staple in Ukraine, and every family has their own spin on it. We've made this recipe in my family for years. To this day, the smell of it cooking takes me right back to my great-grandmother's kitchen. I paid homage to those memories by including a scene where my characters make borsch in my novel.”
Books Mentioned:
The Memory Keeper of Kyiv by Erin Litteken (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Something Wilder by Christina Lauren (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (Bookshop.org / Amazon.com )
Connect with the author:
Transcript:
** Transcript created using AI (so please forgive the typos!) **
Ashley Hasty 0:00
Well Erin, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm really excited to start talking about your debut novel, The Memory Keeper of Kyiv.
Erin Litteken 0:09
Thanks for having me. I'm glad to be here.
Ashley Hasty 0:10
So for those listeners who haven't yet read the book or heard of the book, can you tell them what the Memory Keeper of Kyiv is about?
Erin Litteken 0:16
Sure, it is a story about a young woman named Katya, who is living in a small village outside of Kyiv in Ukraine, Soviet occupied Ukraine. And at that time, she's pretty happy, has a good decent life. She's in love with the boy next door, she's a teenager. But then pretty quickly, things turn bad when Stalin's activists come into the village and try to collectivise all the farmers so they want to make everything state owned and take away the Ukrainians land and farms and implements in livestock.
The Ukrainians were not having it. As we're seeing today. They're a pretty independent people. So they fought back. And in order to stamp out that resistance style and implemented a man made famine, the Holodomor, which killed roughly 4 million Ukrainians, from 1932, to 1933. So this is the journey of her going through that the choices she makes to survive the horrible things she sees, and how she never talks about it again, for decades, because it was just so painful. And the other part of the story is her granddaughter, Cassie, who has just lost her husband in a horrible car accident that her five year old daughter was also in her daughter hasn't spoken since the car accident a year ago. And so she's really struggling to move on with her life. And they come together and living together to help each other. And it's their journey as they both face that grief and try to heal. And Cassie learns the story of her grandmother that she never knew she had no idea what she suffered through. And so it's this discovery of family and healing all at the same time.
Ashley Hasty 1:40
This is your debut novel. As I mentioned, you have a degree in history, and I read that you have a passion for research that's been about your career path that led you to becoming an author.
Erin Litteken 1:52
Well, it's something I've always wanted to do. But it was one of those things that I was like, oh, it's never gonna happen like it, you know, it's it's a really hard thing to break into. So I dabbled with it forever. I started writing this novel years ago, and then I would shelve it and come back to it and shelve it again and think, oh, you know, you know, you're busy. I have kids, I had work I had, you know, life. And so um, when it finally did happen, that I signed an agent a couple years ago, that was the moment I'm like, okay, like, maybe this can really happen, maybe all this research, all this writing can get me there. And so it was it was kind of a surprise, like I was at a point in my career where I thought, I'm going to query one more agent. And if this doesn't happen, I'm showing it for good like, this is it and that agent was like, send me send me the follow up. Let's see it. And so it kind of went from there. It's just been a very long road to get here.
Ashley Hasty 2:36
And why this particular story, what was the initial spark of inspiration that led to this novel being written?
Erin Litteken 2:43
So my great grandmother and my grandfather are from Ukraine, my grandfather was born there, they emigrated out, they came to America after World War Two. And they fled Ukraine during World War Two. So I grew up with her, she lived with us. And I grew up hearing all kinds of stories about life in Ukraine and the things they went through during the war. So I always wanted to write something about that about my family's story. And so as I got older, with a history degree in research, loving research, I started delving into Ukrainian history to try and place those family stories into the broader narrative of what actually happened in Ukraine.
Then, the further back I went, the more I found out about the Holodomor. And how intentional it was, you know, I knew there was a famine, but I didn't realize the full depth of what Stalin went through to specifically target Ukrainians. And as I read about that cover up that he did to hide it from the world, I was just horrified at how how terrible it was. And I really thought I need to start here, I want to tell a story about this tragedy, and try and shed a little bit of light on it for people who didn't know. So it's not my family story. It is Ukraine story. And I really wanted to bring that to light. But Book Two, I will come back to World War Two and kind of implement more of those family stories that I actually heard growing up.
Ashley Hasty 3:57
Oh, well, I always like a little teaser for what's coming next.
Erin Litteken 4:00
Next year.
Ashley Hasty 4:01
What is it like publishing a book that you've been writing and researching for years, about Ukraine, in the midst of Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
Erin Litteken 4:11
Ah, the invasion was February, my book came out in May. So as I'm watching this happen, I'm just thinking, we have to remember these things, talking to your grandparents learning those stories, because when we don't know these things, they repeat. And then people don't realize the depth of this history between Russia and Ukraine did not start in 2014 with Crimea, and it did not start at the fall of the Soviet Union. It goes back generations that they've been fighting for their freedom and their autonomy and in Russia, in various forms of government is trying to stamp them out. It was really hard for my book to come out at that time, but I'm so grateful my publisher wanted to donate a share of proceeds to charities helping Ukraine so that really made me feel better in that I'm not only are we trying to shed light on a forgotten piece of history, but we're helping in some way, some little way. We're gonna be able to get back to Ukraine and it's been really neat to see a lot of my foreign publishers are following suit and donating a share of each sale to Ukrainian charities.
Since you specifically mentioned your passion for research on your website, I have to ask what was your research process? Like? Were you able to travel? Or did you develop favorite resources over time?
Yeah, there's definitely some resources, I went back to a lot. Regarding the travel, I had three trips scheduled to Ukraine, and all were sidelined. The first two were because of COVID. That second one we had scheduled, I was gonna go meet my cousins who still live there. And you know, go to see the village where my grandfather was born, they hadn't had the vaccine there yet, because it's pretty rural. So we stopped that one, the third trip the Russian invasion. So I am going to go there someday, I swear, I'm going to get there someday can't wait to go. But this research for this book had to be done. You know, here in the States, for the most part.
Luckily, there is a wealth of online archives of firsthand primary resources, people talking about their experiences, what their families went through what their parents went through, that was hugely valuable. There's some museums and Kyiv, where you can do an online virtual tour or walking through the museum. So I would walk through it on my computer and then have my phone with Google Translate in my other hand, so I could read the different placards that I have up next to the exhibits, because I'm learning Ukrainian, but I am not fluent in it by any means. So that was really nice to be able to kind of like walk through and see those things, either some online sources, Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard did an amazing study in 2018, that really dove into the it's probably the most in depth analysis of the death lot like the total deaths that occurred during the Holodomor. And they really, they have these interactive maps where you can zoom into different areas and see, you can even see like the monuments that people have erected to the victims, or how many people were lost in this village and how many people were lost in that village. So that was amazingly helpful.
But it's, it's only as thorough as they can be. Because the records are so hard to find, because it was covered up like Stalin eliminated the 1937 census because it showed such a loss of life. So there were so many measures taken that it's hard to really know what the true death toll was. But with those resources, I was able to get a lot a couple obviously nonfiction books I love, I have a lot of books, and I always always have markers in them for the different things I find a little posted by us. So it's a process, I can get stuck researching for a long time, I have to like kind of cut myself off.
Ashley Hasty 7:18
It is my favorite part of the writing process researching. I could research forever and ever and never actually write a word.
Erin Litteken 7:24
Yeah, it's dangerous.. ugh, t's hard. It's hard to walk away from it. It's so interesting.
Ashley Hasty 7:29
Was there a piece of research some fact or story or anecdote that you stumbled upon that you wanted to include in the novel, but it didn't fit the story for one reason or another?
Erin Litteken 7:39
I don't know that there was anything like that. There was a lot of really hard.. and one point, my editor and Agent were like, look, you have to.. It was kind of walking that fine line of not including the true tragedy of it. I struggled with that. I struggled with how much to include, because you want your book to be accessible to people and you want people to want to read it and not just close it because it's too sad. But you don't want to downplay what happened, because it was horrific. And that's just the fact.
Ashley Hasty 8:07
I think that is a fine line and a struggle a lot of historical fiction authors face is that they want, like you said, to convey the depth of the situation, but also not turn people off so that they don't ever read the book.
Erin Litteken 8:20
Exactly. Yeah.
Ashley Hasty 8:22
Or finish the book. Have they started?
Erin Litteken 8:24
Yeah.
Ashley Hasty 8:24
So what advice do you have for authors? Or perhaps those like me who do not have yet have an agent or publishing contract? What would you advise them to do?
Erin Litteken 8:35
Well, I would say, persevere, because this journey took me well over 10 years. Don't give up but also don't stop learning every time you write a new draft, or you change it or edit it, use those writing craft books and read them and try and bring some of that back to your draft as you go back through and re-edit it and connect with other writers. There's just so much information out there now. So many classes and workshops and people who are willing to talk to you. A lot of it's free, or you can get the books through your library, and you can really elevate your craft through that and give yourself hopefully a better shot of finding those connections to go forward.
Ashley Hasty 9:10
You mentioned earlier that you're like just one more agent. Your advice to just persevere is really relevant for all of the writers who have struggled in that early phase of getting your book published. Yeah. When I was preparing for this interview, I was going through your social media, and I noticed we had several book recommendations. So I'm curious, what are you reading right now? And what would you recommend? Or What books would you recommend that we not miss?
Erin Litteken 9:40
I just finished an ARC of The Witch of Tin Mountain by Paulette Kennedy and it was fabulous. I think just coming out in a couple months now but it is just like the right mix of folklore and history and generational stories and strong women loved it. Highly recommend it so keep a lookout for that one. That would be my most recent recommendation. And I've been kind Get on a romcom kick and I don't know if, I think it's almost like a palate cleanser for me after like heavy heavy research that I will escape to my rom coms. So I've been working through some Christina Laurens and Ali Hazelwood's new on is on my Kindle waiting for me after I finished up this next round of edits.
Ashley Hasty 10:18
That's so funny. I wonder if that's a common occurrence for historical fiction writers is that they just need that rom com palate cleanser to get that good. Something that's nice and approachable and has a very happy ending.
Erin Litteken 10:31
Yes, it is nice and I still love a good historical fiction. Don't get me wrong, I still read those quite a bit. But yeah, sometimes it's nice to just do something totally different.
Ashley Hasty 10:40
Yes, I want to share how people can find you. you mind sharing your website and where you hang out on social media.
Erin Litteken 10:46
Sure, I am at ErinLitteken.com. That's my handle for Instagram and Twitter as well. And then Facebook is authorErinLitteken. I am really trying to up my social media game, but it is not my strong suit. I am a stereotypical reclusive antisocial writer, but I am trying so yeah, I'd love when readers reach out to me though. So feel free to come I have a contact for my website or reach out via social media. I always love to talk.
Ashley Hasty 11:08
And before we wrap up, is there anything else you wanted to talk about that we haven't covered yet?
Erin Litteken 11:12
No, I don't think so. I think that's you've covered everything really well.
Well, it was a pleasure meeting you today. You know, we have one other thing in common it's a St. Louis connection. I read that you live outside of St.Louis.
I do, yeah on the Illinois side.
Ashley Hasty 11:26
My parents live outside of St. Louis too, in St. Charles. So I saw that had that that connection. So I wanted to do a call-out to St. Louis.
Erin Litteken 11:33
Yeah, wonderful.
Ashley Hasty 11:34
So I hope that that means that we'll be able to meet in person one of these days
Erin Litteken 11:37
That'd be fantastic, yeah let me know.
Ashley Hasty 11:38
Well thanks, again.