NATALIE KONONENKO NAMED PRESIDENT-ELECT OF SLAVIC GROUP,
	PUBLISHES NEW BOOK OF UKRAINIAN FOLK TALES

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., April 1 -- Natalie O. Kononenko, an
associate professor of Slavic languages and literatures at the
University of Virginia, has been tapped to be the president elect of
the Southern Conference on Slavic Studies.
	Kononenko was named to that post at the SCSS's annual business
meeting in Lexington, Ky., on March 22.  She will serve in that
capacity for one year and then will assume the duties of president of
the SCSS for the 1998-99 year.
	Also, Kononenko's latest book has just been published.  "The
Magic Egg And Other Tales From Ukrain," is a collaborative effort
between Kononenko, who edited the book, and Barbara J. Suwyn, who
retold the traditional Ukrainian folk tales in a format designed to
appeal to children.  The collection introduces readers to Ukraine's
long and fascinating history, its rich folk literature and its
literature are followed by 33 traditional tales -- humorous animal
tales, instructive fables, who-and-why stories, heroic legends, even
spooky tales.  Color plates and line drawings illustrate elements from
the stories and show some of the landscape architecture and folk art
of Ukraine.
	The Southern Conference on Slavic Studies is an academic
organization dedicate to the promotion of scholarship, education and
advancement of scholarly interest in Russian, East European and Slavic
studies in the southern region of the United States.  Among all of the
affiliates of the national American Association for the Advancement of
Slavic Studies, SCSS is the largest and the oldest.
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March 31, 1997

	For more information, call Charlotte Crystal, public
information officer, at (804) 924 6858, or Natalie Kononenko at (804)
924-3554.  Television reporters should call our TV News Office at
(804) 924-7550.