Irina Lutsenko

Writing helps people process events and feelings. Written in my Creative Writing Club , this piece helped Svetlana Demchenko process some events in her life. I was moved. ✼✼✼ "A tree, a home and a life. Split in half." She woke up and sat up on her bed. Last night she had a nightmare, one of those nightmares that can be hard to shake off and wake up from. One of those that resemble a cat's claws or a snake's teeth because the harder you try to escape, the more you find yourself hopelessly trapped. All she remembered from this nightmare was a thunderstorm, overwhelming and never ending. It felt like there's no life after this thunderstorm. And she couldn't remember what was before the thunderstorm. The strangest thing was that the thunder had a metal rattle to it. It was driving her crazy. It was unusually quiet in her room. Seemed like there was life after a thunderstorm after all. She looked around and saw that it wasn't actually her room. The wallpaper ...

Writing helps people process events and feelings. Written by a student who wanted to remain anonymous, this piece helped them process some of their memories. I loved it so much I thought it deserved a much wider readership than just me.   ✽✽✽ The image of that graveyard is hard to forget – the parched knee-high grass, the scorching August sun, the rusty metal crosses and memorial plates with Russian names (some illegible, some with bullet traces). I can still remember that acute feeling of nonbelonging. The thought “I gotta get out of this city” was pulsing in my head. The mountainous Chechen Republic, so advertised in our local travel agencies, has indeed a lot to offer, especially for those who are brave enough to go off the beaten track and face its grim history. It was my first visit to Grozny, the name that translates as “fearsome” into Russian. The city used to be my mother’s home, and I was curious to see it with my own eyes. My suitcase was filled with humble long sk...

I want to share a piercing piece written by Timur Khamzin in my Creative Writing Club , which is a free project for people who share my passion for writing. Plain yet powerful, this story pierces my heart every time I read it. Enjoy! ✽✽✽ "Fixing Starts With the Tap" “Today. I will fix that tap today,” was my first thought this morning. How many times did I ask him to do that? He’d ignore it, as he did with most things I asked him to do, but this tap - it’s a constant reminder of him now that he’s gone. I also need to play it safe and change the lock - he still has the key. I could still see the bruise he gave me in the ceiling mirror above our bed. My bed. It’ll be a while till I like my reflection again, but the bruise has nothing to do with it. Why did I not finish it earlier? Why would I ever let anyone treat me like a doormat? I was lingering in the bed, slow to get out as has become my habit, looking blankly at my own reflection as if looking for an answer and knowing...

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise." I am beyond thrilled to present another winner Natalia Larchenko . Her story is wonderfully weird, which was what helped her win. Don't be afraid to be weird and enjoy the story! ✽✽✽ How to fail (the IELTS exam) How can a regular city slicker blend in with seasoned farmers? This was the question that I started to mull over about two months ago when I first learned that my late uncle had been kind enough to have bequeathed me his splendid mansion out in the sticks. I visited the place only once before making a final decision of moving in. After all, it was easy to fall in love with peaceful walks in the dappled shade of trees, while listening to their rustle in the wind. Much more soothing than a rustle of bank notes...

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise." I am beyond thrilled to present another winner Vera Novikova . Her approach stood out immediately - she wrote a poem! Enjoy (and don't forget to change your password)! ✽✽✽ Etude If you reveal your secrets to the wind,  you should not blame the wind for  revealing them to the trees. Khalil Gibran Prelude A really gifted writer Would start by setting context To make her story brighter, Way vivid and more honest. My piece will lack specifics, Agenda and the looks. No Pulitzer Scientifics. A simple story of a crook. Overture – part one Feeling like a Sherlock Holmes In his shabby study A man was roaming someone’s home Alone, without a buddy. What was he searching in that place? A proof? A photo? Files? Perhaps, adulter...

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise" has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise." I am beyond thrilled to present another winner  Evgenia Karabatova and share her story "To hell with mayonnaise." See her interpretation of the prompt and enjoy her story! ✽✽✽ To hell with mayonnaise He flinched when she said he couldn’t have mayonnaise. You wouldn’t even notice it since it wasn’t a real flinch but more of a slight movement of his brow following eye following cheek following lip. However, five years of unprecedented togetherness taught her to detect any little change in her husband’s facial expression. She couldn’t miss it. At that moment they heard a loud thud from the nursery followed by a piercing shriek. “Bottle overboard”, she muttered knowingly. “I hate that game.” She stood up quickly...

My Creative Writing Contest "Mayonnaise"   has come to its inevitable end, which is good because I can finally share the amazing stories by the amazing winners! The prompt for the contest was simple: Write a story that ends with the word "Mayonnaise." I am beyond thrilled to present one of the winners Elizaveta Zanozina and share her story "Hypnotized." See her interpretation of the prompt and enjoy her story! ✽✽✽ Hypnotized I stood there watching him pour down mayonnaise into a salad bowl. He didn't just squeeze the pack, dropping unshaped mass of yellowish something onto the chopped vegetables. Not at all. Instead, he followed some sort of a pattern known to no one but him. Sometimes he stopped to shift his gaze from the bowl to the packet in his hand as if calculating the force he needed to apply in order to get a perfect line of mayo. He was always like that. No matter what was happening around, he would always take his time drawing inexplicable...

My Creative Writing Contest " Mayonnaise, " first ever, has come to an end. I am not participating, but I have written a story because I love the prompt, which was "Write a story that ends with the words 'Mayonnaise.'" I love it for two reasons (apart from the fact that I came up with it myself). First, it gives you a lot of freedom to write whatever story you want - serious or light-hearted, with or without a message, somewhat true or entirely fictitious. Second, it allows you to exercise your imagination because "Mayonnaise" can be anything - food, your dog's name, your nickname, your password, you name it. A lot of people ask me, "Why did you choose this word?" I am now ready to lift the veil. There is a book that ends with the word "mayonnaise" - "Trout Fishing in America" by Richard Brautigan . The author said, "I have always wanted to write a book that ended with the word 'mayonnaise.'" A...

I want to share a story written by a wonderfully creative Lyudmila Snezhanova in my Creative Writing Club , which is a free project for people who share my passion for writing. Lyudmila wrote an incredible but also hilarious piece on a highly challenging but also fun prompt: "My dad gave me three life rules to live by: 1. (fill in the blank), 2. (fill in the blank) and 3. (fill in the blank). The first two were easy, but the third one proved difficult all because of a cheeseburger. Let me explain." Below is her wonderfully-crafted story. Enjoy! ✽✽✽ My dad gave me three life rules to live by: 1. Take time to snuggle your pets, they love you so much and are always happy to see you, 2. Don't pick a weak man, and 3. Don't feed or beat other people's children. The first two were easy, but the third one proved difficult all because of a cheeseburger. Let me explain. In fact, I am sitting now at a McDonald's restaurant with a green crayon that I've just stolen f...

This is my second piece about Dublin (third overall) written for the creative writing contest by American Center in Moscow . What can I say, I love this city. ♡ ✽✽✽ “St Stephen's Green. Alight here for the Grafton Street shopping district." I decide to alight here and walk across the O’Connell bridge. I'm walking to "Chapters," the best bookstore in the city. The best bookstore in the city is located in arguably the worst place - amid modern, shiny, cookie-cutter shopping centers. Not on the ground floor of a quintessentially Irish house, not next to the Temple Bar pub, not across the road from Trinity College. I've checked them all. I can testify to their inferiority. I swiftly navigate the busy streets full of shoppers with branded paper bags, diving in and out of small pockets of free space. Agonizing over countless book choices, debating back and forth, I buy two, well aware I would have to carry them around all day. None of these books are Oscar Wilde, b...

This is the second piece I wrote for the the "Good Night, Moscow" creative writing contest by  American Center in Moscow . In this piece, I wanted to sing my love to Dublin, but also let my imagination run wild. The result is this fairy tale. Enjoy! ✽✽✽ As the airport bus whisks me to the city, I try not to doze off. It’s been a long day. Fields, trees, shrubs, hedges that are 50 shades of green flash by as I lean my forehead on the cold window. It’ll stop me from dozing off. Goosebumps gradually cover my body, the contagion spread by the window. One thing about Ireland is how surprisingly lightly people are dressed. The bus is standing at the crossroads, waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, and what do I see, wearing my northern sweater and trying to contain the spread of goosebumps? Teenagers wearing shorts and t-shirts. It’s +2. I get even more goosebumps at the sight. The traffic lights turn green. Entering the city. Crossing the O’Connell Bridge. More traffic li...

This is the piece I wrote for the "Good Night, Moscow" creative writing contest by American Center in Moscow . Before doing so, I told Timur Khamzin "I don't care about winning. I can always publish my piece in my community." The time has come to publish my piece " Good Night, St Petersburg " in my community. Enjoy! ✽✽✽ The morning is ruined by the blocked nose. Coffee and nasal spray do the trick, but I rummage in the cupboard for tissues anyway. I know I will have the sniffles for the rest of the day, so better safe than sorry. Pockets full of tissues, I sink into a metro seat. Achoo. -  Bless you. Fighting the sniffles? Talking to a stranger on the metro? He can't be local. -  Yep. A never-ending fight in this city. -  You must really love it if you are willing to fight the never-ending fight. -  I do. It was love at first sight. The bridges, the embankments, the buildings that are one kilometer long… I came for the romance, but the romance co...

I am itching to share a story written by Lyudmila Snezhanova in my Creative Writing Club , which is a project for people who share my passion for writing. Lyudmila wrote an incredible piece based on a highly challenging  prompt : ✦ Choose one of the following idioms and include it in a story that also includes a literal use of one of the figurative words in the idiom. For example, if I were to choose the phrase “at the drop of a hat,” I would also include a hat or someone dropping something. - at the drop of a hat - hit the sack - judge a book by its cover - beat around the bush - steal [someone’s] thunder - the last straw. ✦ Below is her wonderfully-crafted story with all of these idioms in their literal and figurative meaning! Enjoy!  ✽✽✽ Don't judge Abook “Yes,” said Perry Stalker, gripping his new suspenders, slipping from his stomach, and regretting he had feasted on smoked bream and a six pack of beer last weekend. "With our stainless reputation...