Art as Medicine: Inside the First Year of the I’mmortal Fellowship

Published: October 7, 2026

Five cross-border partnerships with one shared mission, and why creative practice belongs at the center of Ukraine’s recovery

This summer, in the village of Nahachiv in Ukraine’s Lviv region, 80 children spent a week dancing, drawing, taking photographs, and writing their own plays. On the final day, they performed for their parents, neighbors, and local leaders. The show explored freedom, identity, and support, and the children imagined worlds of their own making.

Among the volunteers who joined The Campfire Project and Folkowisko Ukraine – the participants of our inaugural I’mmortal Fellowship – was two-time Oscar nominee Jesse Eisenberg, who had spent a year learning the Cyrillic alphabet so he could read his lines in Ukrainian during the children’s performances. Two air-raid sirens sounded that week in the area, both after the day’s programming had ended.

For us, this week captures what the I’mmortal Fellowship (Безсмертні) is about: using art as healing practice for those most in need.

“Art has always been how people make meaning and take care of communities in the hardest moments,” says Razom CEO Dora Chomiak. This year, we watched that happen in real time.

Why Arts in Health, Why Now

I’mmortal is Razom’s first Arts in Health program, created in partnership with Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts. It started from a simple idea: creative practice can be part of how people recover.

The need in Ukraine is enormous. After more than four years of full-scale invasion, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that a mental health crisis affects about 10 million people in Ukraine. Rehabilitation needs far exceed existing service capacity, and only 4% of hospitals provide inpatient rehabilitation.

At the same time, the evidence around arts and health is growing. A major WHO review of more than 3,000 studies found that the arts can play an important role in preventing ill health, promoting health, and managing and treating illness across the lifespan.

When we opened the I’mmortal Open Call this spring, we received 35 applications from across Ukraine and the United States. They came from NGOs, cultural collectives, artists, clinicians, and universities. Our Selection Committee matched 12 of them into five cross-border partnerships.

Each received a grant of up to $10,000 for their pilot projects, and was asked to co-create, not simply export an American model to Ukraine, or vice versa.

Five Partnerships, Five Different Stories

Gathering Around the Fire. Eleven artists, creative arts therapists, translators, and a psychiatrist, led by New York-based The Campfire Project and its director Jessica Hecht, traveled from the US to work alongside the local Folkowisko Ukraine team. After the children’s summer camp, they trained 30 educators, social workers, psychologists, and doctors in Yavoriv, some of whom came from frontline regions. The training was run with the Jameel Arts & Health Lab and the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe. As part of the program, participants were also equipped with tools they can continue using long after the visiting team leaves.

Artscapes of Care. This project started with a question that is easy to overlook: Who takes care of the people who take care of everyone else? Through soundscapes, movement, and visual storytelling, US partners Kerry Kincy and Dr. Midori Samson joined Kyiv-based First Aid of the Soul in Lviv for interactive, arts-based workshops with children and families at St. Nicholas Hospital, veterans at UNBROKEN, and teachers at Oberih School, which serves children with intellectual disabilities. The exchange culminated in a professional development and networking program at Ukrainian Catholic University for mental health and social service practitioners from across the region. It highlighted something important: supporting the people providing care is part of supporting the people they serve.

Rhythm as Regulation. This summer, New Orleans-based dancer and acupuncturist Yekaterina Chizayeva and Ukrainian somatic educator and psychologist Kateryna Taranova brought together a group of Ukrainian artists in the Carpathian town of Slavsko. The group included dancers, ceramicists, vocalists, and visual artists. They worked in different mediums, but found a common thread: the rhythms of the nervous system, and the power of creative practice to support regulation, wellbeing, and resilience. The residency has grown into a community of practitioners who continue to meet and share knowledge. A second lab follows in New Orleans in October, with the goal of creating a shared toolkit for rhythm-based practices and exploring how movement and sound can help ease anxiety, calm groups together, and support recovery from the sensory toll of war, including the hypervigilance caused by drones overhead.

Me – The Other. This inclusive theatre initiative pairs The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories Institute in Washington, D.C., with Yuliia Vintoniv, a theologian and educator from Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Yuliia is working to build a university course based on The Theatre Lab’s Life Stories method, which draws on more than 20 years of autobiographical theatre. Starting in January 2027, the pilot course will bring together about 20 to 25 students with people who have congenital disabilities or injuries from the war. Through movement, storytelling, improvisation, and writing, they will create original theatre from their own lives and challenge the stigma around disability in wartime Ukraine. The learning goes both ways. Yuliia is training with The Theatre Lab online and in person in the US, while The Theatre Lab will bring what it learns from Ukraine to its own work with US military veterans. In the long run, the team hopes to bring the course to other universities across Ukraine.

Moving, Imagining, and Unbroken. This dance and movement program for Ukrainian combat veterans is led by New York based Exit12 Dance Company, the Imagination Lab at SUNY Albany, and Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University in Lutsk. The program combines movement with surrealism-inspired drawing and collage and is being adapted for amputees and veterans with limited mobility. The work is grounded in research: the Imagination Lab’s studies link engaging with surrealist art to resilience and emotional richness, and participants will take part in voluntary surveys before and after each workshop to measure changes in resilience, hope and wellbeing. Pilot workshops in the New York area will bring Ukrainian and American veterans into the same room.

Coming Together at Wesleyan

From November 2–7, all five partnerships will gather at Wesleyan for a week of shared programming and peer exchange. The week ends with a public Capstone Showcase on November 7 at 2 pm at Fayerweather Beckham Hall in Middletown, CT. Each team will share what it built this year and how they envision bringing the work into Ukrainian hospitals, veterans’ centers, schools, and communities in 2027.

Why “I’mmortal”

The Fellowship’s name brings together two ideas: mortality, which is part of being human and the subject of medicine, and the lasting power of the arts.

In the creative arts, the healing arts, and the act of making something together, we are immortal, even when what we face is the fragility of our bodies or the difficulty of staying connected to the world.

This year, we saw it in a village hall in Nahachiv, a mountain studio in Slavsko, a hospital ward in Lviv, and a rehearsal room in New York.

On November 7, come witness it at Wesleyan!

Rachel Shuey and Viktorija Mickute, Razom Connect

Razom Recommends: What to See, Watch, and Experience This October

Published: October 6, 2026

Recent weeks have brought another wave of devastating Russian attacks across Ukraine, reminding us that supporting Ukraine also means showing up for its culture and the people creating it.
This October, Ukrainian stories, artists, filmmakers, and musicians are taking the stage across New York. Go see them, bring a friend, share their work, and help make sure Ukrainian voices continue to be seen and heard.
Here’s what Razom recommends this month.

Solitude at New York City Ballet

October 7, 10, 11, 15 & 16 | Lincoln Center

Alexei Ratmansky’s Solitude returns to New York City Ballet as part of Eclectic NYCB I.

Set to music by Gustav Mahler, the ballet is a meditation on grief inspired by Russia’s war against Ukraine. At its center is a father mourning the loss of his child, transforming the reality of war into a deeply personal work about loss, memory, and solitude.

It is also a powerful example of how Ukraine’s story continues to reach audiences on some of the world’s most prominent cultural stages.

Where: David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
When: October 7, 10, 11, 15 & 16

A Well for the Thirsty at the New York Film Festival

October 8 & 9 | Film at Lincoln Center

A landmark of Ukrainian poetic cinema returns to the big screen.

Yuri Ilyenko’s A Well for the Thirsty (Криниця для спраглих) will screen at the 64th New York Film Festival in the North American premiere of its new 4K restoration.

Completed in 1965, Ilyenko’s debut feature was suppressed by Soviet authorities and remained unreleased until 1987. Nearly without dialogue, the film follows an elderly man living alone while memories and visions of his family surround him.

The restoration was created from the original 35mm camera negative preserved by the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre in Kyiv, making these screenings an opportunity to experience an essential work of Ukrainian cinema as it was meant to be seen.

Where: Film at Lincoln Center
When: October 8 at 6:30 PM and October 9 at 12:45 PM

Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Earth and Empire at Metrograph

October 10–18 | Metrograph

October offers another chance to dive deeper into Ukrainian film history with Oleksandr Dovzhenko: Earth and Empire, a retrospective celebrating one of Ukraine’s most influential filmmakers.

The program brings films including Earth, Arsenal, Zvenygora, Aerograd, Ivan, and Shchors back to the big screen alongside works by filmmaker Yulia Solntseva. Several titles will be presented on 35mm, with select screenings accompanied by live music.

Beyond rediscovering Dovzhenko’s extraordinary visual language, the retrospective offers audiences an opportunity to see these films through a Ukrainian lens, beyond the Soviet framework through which Ukrainian cinema has so often been presented internationally.

Where: Metrograph, 7 Ludlow Street, New York
When: October 10–18

Kommuna Lux: Benefit Concerts for Ukrainian Children

October 11 | Philadelphia & October 13 | New York City

Odesa-based ensemble Kommuna Lux brings its energetic mix of klezmer and Ukrainian folk music to Philadelphia and New York City for two special benefit concerts.

The concerts support Common Man for Ukraine’s humanitarian assistance and trauma-recovery retreats for Ukrainian children who have lost a parent in the war — an opportunity to experience music from Odesa while supporting children and families affected by Russia’s war.

Philadelphia: October 11 at 3:00 PM | KleinLife, Northeast Philadelphia
Get tickets for Philadelphia

New York City: October 13 at 7:30 PM | Hudson Yards Synagogue
Get tickets for New York City

People Power: Ukraine’s “Unreasonable” Women

October 15 | New York City

Join Razom for a special live taping of Gaslit Nation celebrating Ukrainian women and their power to lead, create, organize, and bring communities together.

Journalist, author, filmmaker, and Gaslit Nation host Andrea Chalupa joins Razom CEO Dora Chomiak for a conversation about Ukrainian women, resilience, leadership, and the power of collective action.

The evening will also include an advance preview of Chalupa’s forthcoming book, A Reasonable Guide for Unreasonable Women: 20 Steps to Find Your Purpose and Power in a World on Fire, live jazz by French singer Marine Futin, refreshments, a silent auction, and a book signing.

When: October 15, 6:30–9:00 PM
Where: New York City

Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival

October 18–November 6 | Across New York City

One of our biggest recommendations this month is also one of our biggest celebrations of Ukrainian culture.

Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival returns for its fourth year, bringing Ukrainian cinema, music, theater, literature, and visual arts to venues across New York City.

The festival opens at Carnegie Hall on October 18 with the U.S. premiere of Ukrainian composer Oleh Bezborodko’s Steel, Violet, Rage. Inspired by a poem by Ukrainian soldier and poet Maksym Kryvtsov, who was killed while defending Ukraine, the work will be performed by the Shelest Piano Duo with the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

From there, the festival moves across the city with Ukrainian films including Sanatorium, Nice Ladies, Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story, Silent Flood, Honeymoon, To the Victory! and Cuba & Alaska, alongside documentary and animated shorts.

The program also includes The Reckoning, developed from verified witness testimony gathered by The Reckoning Project; Poet as Witness at Poets House; programming dedicated to Lesia Ukrainka at the New York Public Library; and much more.

The festival continues into November and concludes at Carnegie Hall on November 6 with Unbreakable Harmony, featuring the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum Chamber Girls Choir and the Westchester Children’s Chorus.

There is a lot to choose from, so pick an event, invite someone who may not know much about Ukrainian culture, and experience it together.

When: October 18–November 6
Where: Venues across New York City

Coming next: Oksana Lyniv conducts Tosca at the Met

Beginning November 1 | Metropolitan Opera

And one final recommendation to put on your calendar now.

Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv returns to the Metropolitan Opera this November to conduct Puccini’s Tosca.

Lyniv, who made her Met debut conducting Turandot in 2024, will lead six performances beginning November 1. Her return to one of the world’s most important opera stages is another moment to celebrate Ukrainian talent at the highest level of international culture.

Where: Metropolitan Opera, Lincoln Center
When: November 1, 6, 9, 14, 17 & 20

Show up for Ukraine

Ukraine needs continued international support as Russia continues its war and attacks on Ukrainian communities. But supporting Ukraine also means knowing what Ukrainians are fighting to protect.

Culture is part of that story.

This month, watch a Ukrainian film. Hear Ukrainian music. Support Ukrainian artists. Bring a friend. Share what you discover.

Every audience matters. Every conversation helps keep Ukraine seen, heard, and understood.

Ukrainian Culture Takes Center Stage in New York

Published: September 28, 2026

A look behind the scenes of the Ukrainian Cultural Festival, and why showing up matters.

“October is Ukrainian culture month,” we’ve heard around New York City over the past few years. And for us, that is one of the clearest signs of what Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival (UCF) has become.

This is our fourth year, and in 2026 we are reaching new stages, new audiences, and new partners across the city. As producers curating performing arts programming for Razom for Ukraine, we get to see the vision come to life each year, from our very first brainstorming sessions to the final moments when the theater and venues are restored to their original forms and everything gets quiet again.

This year, we have the privilege of partnering with the Alexander & Buono Foundation to open the festival at Carnegie Hall with the US premiere of Ukrainian composer Oleg Bezborodko’s Steel, Violet, Rage, performed by the Shelest Piano Duo (Anna and Dmitri Shelest) alongside the Brandywine Symphony Orchestra from the greater Philadelphia region.

The title of the piano concerto alone tells a story. Steel evokes Azovstal, the vast steelworks in Mariupol that became a place of extraordinary resistance during the siege of the city in 2022, and with it the endurance and heroism of its defenders. Violet comes from the final poem of Ukrainian poet and soldier Maksym Kryvtsov, killed in action in 2024. And Rage needs little explanation.

But this is not a concert about the war. It is Ukrainian contemporary music, including a piece by the Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, performed alongside works by the legendary American composers Philip Glass and Samuel Barber.

By design, UCF is a rare opportunity to bring extraordinary Ukrainian talent to New York as artists whose work belongs in the city’s cultural life, without reducing it to the current devastation of war. This is one of the reasons we’re proud to work tirelessly on the festival each year and see it receive the recognition it deserves.

Over three weeks, starting October 18 through November 6, audiences will encounter Ukrainian cinema, literature, theater, and classical music performances. We are partnering with established cultural institutions such as QUAD Cinema, DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema, The Public Theater, Teatro LATEA, the New York Public Library, Poets House and more.

For us, this expansion in partnerships and locations is one of the most exhilarating parts. It proves the point: Ukrainian art should not exist only in Ukrainian spaces as it belongs in the wider cultural landscape of New York.

Stories On Stage

One of the performances we’re particularly looking forward to is The Reckoning: Selected Scenes and Conversation by Dash Arts, a New York preview of verbatim theater based on verified survivor testimony from russia’s war in Ukraine.

It tells the story of one man who remained in his village outside Kyiv when others fled. The performance will be followed by a conversation between London-based director Josephine Burton and Peter Pomerantsev, co-founder of The Reckoning Project, about the testimony behind the work and the documentation of war crimes.

Our festival becomes the springboard for further exploration and workshopping of this piece ahead of its US tour in 2027. Praised as “powerful and important” and “brilliant, sharp stage craft” in the UK, the production comes to UCF with US-based Ukrainian actors Petro Ninovskyi and Sasha Odesa.

At the festival, we not only bring Ukrainian artists’ work to New York, but also showcase American talent working on Ukrainian stories. Playwright Richard Nelson’s new play, More Beauty Than Sorrow, created in Kyiv, looks at Lesia Ukrainka and her family through their everyday lives rather than through the usual monumental portrait of a national literary figure. The festivalgoers will be able to see the production that was created in Ukraine in a film screening at The Public Theater.

A Full Circle

This year, the festival closes where it started – with a return to Carnegie Hall with Unbreakable Harmony, bringing together the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum Chamber Girls’ Choir and the Westchester Children’s Chorus.

They will perform Ukrainian and American music, songs about peace and community, and, finally, Shchedryk – the Ukrainian melody better known in the US as Carol of the Bells.

This carries a specific meaning: Shchedryk was first performed for American audiences at Carnegie Hall in 1921. More than a century later, Ukrainian children will sing it there again.

Artists need audiences and culture survives by staying alive in people’s minds and hearts.

Artists need not only donations and support, but also the chance to connect and be together in a room with audiences during these very challenging times.

You may come because you want to support Ukraine, but you may leave having discovered a composer, actor, filmmaker, or story you knew nothing about.

And that is the beauty of something we can’t live without: culture. And this year, we have some spectacular moments of Ukrainian culture to witness together.

We hope you’ll join us.

Rachel Shuey and Viktorija Mickute, UCF Producers

Razom for Ukraine and the American Literary Translators Association

Published: August 26, 2026

Razom for Ukraine and the American Literary Translators Association

Announce Joint Venture

August 26, 2026—Razom for Ukraine and the American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) are excited to announce the establishment of two new programs. Through this new partnership, ALTA will administer the Razom Mentorship for Decolonial Translation and the Razom Ukrainian Translation Award.

“This partnership with ALTA marks an important step in building lasting infrastructure for Ukrainian literature in translation,” said Anna Solovei, Interim Connect Program Director at Razom for Ukraine. “Ukrainian voices have too often been filtered through frameworks that obscure or diminish them. By centering decolonial approaches to translation and investing in both emerging and established translators, we hope to help create a more accurate, more resonant space for Ukrainian—and other historically marginalized—literatures in English. We’re grateful to ALTA for their partnership and expertise in bringing these programs to life.”

“We’re delighted to enter into partnership with Razom for Ukraine, whose work we so admire, to offer this mentorship and award,” said ALTA Executive Director Katrine Øgaard Jensen. “We’re humbled by the trust shown in our organization to administer these new programs: one to foster the next generation of literary translators, and one to recognize the excellent work of our colleagues. We are excited to begin work on these initiatives.”

The Razom Mentorship for Decolonial Translation will foster emerging literary translators working with literature from historically marginalized regions and languages, through a dedicated mentorship stream that pairs emerging translators with experienced mentors, with a different regional or language focus each year. This mentorship will be offered annually starting in 2027. Applications for the first year of this mentorship, which will offer a focus on Ukrainian-language literature with mentor Dominique Hoffman, open next week, on September 1, 2026.

The Razom Ukrainian Translation Award will sustain and recognize excellence in literary translation from Ukrainian and other languages of Ukraine into English. This award will be judged and awarded annually starting in 2027. Submissions will open, alongside the other awards ALTA administers, in mid-January 2027.

Razom for Ukraine is a leading U.S.-based nonprofit organization working to build a secure, democratic, and prosperous Ukraine. Founded in 2014, Razom (“together” in Ukrainian) supports urgent needs in Ukraine while investing in long-term solutions across health, civil society, advocacy, and culture. As Ukraine’s future has global implications, Razom strengthens trauma care systems, supports local leaders and communities, and connects Ukraine to the world. For more information, visit razomforukraine.org.

The American Literary Translators Association (ALTA) is a nonprofit arts membership association that provides programs and professional affiliation to the literary translation community: individual translators, academic institutions, presses, and others working in literary translation. The annual ALTA conference and year-round events are structured around the creation of high-quality art. ALTA also administers awards to recognize excellence in translation and provides fellowships and mentorships to support emerging translators. For more information, visit literarytranslators.org.

Razom for Ukraine Announces Fourth Annual Ukrainian Cultural Festival, Opening with US Premiere at Carnegie Hall

Published: August 18, 2026

Razom for Ukraine Announces Fourth Annual Ukrainian Cultural Festival, Opening with US Premiere at Carnegie Hall

NEW YORK, NY, August 18 — Razom for Ukraine today announced the return of its Ukrainian Cultural Festival (UCF), a celebration of Ukrainian arts and culture across New York City, running October 18 through November 6, 2026. Now in its fourth year, UCF spans performing arts, cinema, theater, and literature, and continues Razom’s mission of connecting American audiences with Ukrainian voices, artists, and institutions.

The festival opens on October 18 at Carnegie Hall with the US premiere of “Steel, Violet, Rage,” a Concerto for Piano Four Hands and Orchestra by Ukrainian composer Oleh Bezborodko, believed to be the first piano four hands concerto ever written by a Ukrainian composer. The piece is inspired by a poem by Maksym Kryvtsov, a Ukrainian soldier and poet who was killed in the war shortly after writing it. The concerto will be performed by the Shelest Piano Duo alongside the Brandywine Valley Symphony Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Hall, in partnership with the Alexander & Buono Foundation. A donor reception follows the performance. Tickets available at Carnegie Hall event page.

Throughout the festival, Razom Cinema partners with DCTV and QUAD Cinema to present a curated weekend of Ukrainian film programming from October 22 through 26. Highlights include the opening night screening of “Sanatorium,” directed by Gar O’Rourke, and a slate of features and documentaries exploring war, resilience, identity, and community, several developed in partnership with Ukrainian film festivals including Linoleum, Docudays, and Sunny Bunny. The cinema weekend also features a screening of the documentary “Scream of My Blood: A Gogol Bordello Story” with a special appearance by documentary subject and punk music legend Eugene Hütz.

On October 26, Dash Arts (London) presents a workshop of “The Reckoning,” a bilingual documentary style theater piece developed from verified witness testimony gathered by The Reckoning Project, ahead of its North American tour. The workshop is produced in New York in partnership with ArKtype, the original producer of the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival.

The festival’s literary programming includes “Poet as Witness” at Poets House on October 28, featuring Ukrainian poets and soldiers Lesyk Panasiuk and Yaryna Chornohuz alongside their translators, and a program on Lesia Ukrainka as “The Modernist Playwright America Has Yet to Discover” at the New York Public Library on October 30. The event features a reading of excerpts from Ukrainka’s two renowned plays “The Blue Rose” (1896) and “Cassandra” (1908), and a panel discussion exploring what possibilities Ukrainka’s fierce and psychologically charged work offers for the contemporary American theater artists and how her plays can be reimagined today.

UCF closes on November 6 at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Recital Hall with a performance by the Kyiv Lysenko State Music Lyceum Chamber Girls Choir together with the Westchester Children’s Chorus. The former is one of Ukraine’s premier youth choral ensembles and an international competition winner with past performances in Vatican City and at the Berlin Philharmonie. Both choirs take the stage side by side for the national anthems of Ukraine and the United States, followed by their own programs.

“We invest in culture because it’s essential, not optional. Razom’s cultural work – sharing Ukrainian arts, culture and stories – helps the world understand the real Ukraine; its creativity, resilience, and humanity.” – Ania Solovei, Razom Connect Interim Director

Tickets and full programming details are available at ucfnyc.org.

Media inquiries can be directed to Hannah Goldshlack-Wolf at hannah@wildkatpr.com (+19173302046).

About Razom:

The Chornobyl Legacy: Honoring the 40th Anniversary of the Disaster

Published: April 26, 2026

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster, a milestone recognized by the United Nations as International Chornobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. On April 26, 1986, the explosion at Reactor No. 4 in Soviet-controlled Ukraine became the world’s worst nuclear accident, unleashing a torrent of radiation that forever altered millions of lives and reshaped global consciousness.

Four decades later, history does not remain in the past. The Razom team has curated a selection of essential cultural works that have helped the world process this trauma. Through the lens of cinema, art, and literature, these creators ensure that Chornobyl is never forgotten. They remind us that while the Zone may be silent, its story is still being written.

Performing Arts

Archaeological Opera: Chornobyldorf

Created in 2020 by composers Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko, Chornobyldorf stands as arguably the most internationally acclaimed contemporary Ukrainian performing arts work on the subject of nuclear catastrophe.

Framed as an “archaeological opera,” it depicts the descendants of humanity navigating a post-apocalyptic world. Wandering among the ruins of nuclear power plants, abandoned churches, and decaying galleries, these survivors attempt to piece together the fragments of a lost civilization through surreal performance rituals.

Watch

The Chornobyl Songs Project

Released via Smithsonian Folkways, the project – titled Living Culture from a Lost World – is a monumental effort to recreate centuries-old Polissian village traditions. The collection features harvest songs, wedding melodies, and ancient church carols, all reconstructed from field recordings made just before the 1986 disaster forced these ancient communities to abandon their ancestral lands.

By breathing new life into these “captured” sounds, Ensemble Hilka ensures that the cultural identity of the Polissia region survives, even as the villages themselves remain empty.

Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music

Literature

In “Chornobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe,”Plokhy draws on recently declassified sources to chronicle the 1986 explosion. He “mercilessly chronicles the absurdities of the Soviet system” (Wall Street Journal), tracing the disaster to the flaws of authoritarian rule and a regime that prioritized economic goals over human safety. It remains a vivid, empathetic tribute to the firefighters and scientists who extinguished the nuclear inferno.

Plokhy continues this narrative in his latest book, “Chernobyl Roulette.” He recounts the harrowing 35-day Russian occupation of the plant during the 2022 full-scale invasion. This “real-life thriller” follows the Ukrainian staff held hostage who worked grueling, weeks-long shifts to prevent a new catastrophe. From the veteran foreman Valentyn Heiko to the workers who maintained safety under the shadow of Russian tanks, Plokhy sounds an urgent alarm about the unprecedented dangers facing nuclear sites in wartime.

Stalking the Atomic City: Life Among the Decadent and the Depraved of Chornobyl by Markiyan Kamysh
Translated by Hanna Leliv & Reilly Costigan-Humes

Since the 1986 disaster, Chornobyl has remained a forbidden wasteland that exerts a magnetic pull on “stalkers” – illegal adventurers who treat the barbed wire as a pilgrimage. Markiyan Kamysh offers a “gonzo” guide to this dystopian reality, introducing readers to the thieves, police, and romantic utopists who inhabit the Zone despite its toxic legacy.

Featuring photographs that may be the last images of the site’s desolate beauty before the 2022 Russian occupation, Kamysh’s brash and bold prose captures Chornobyl’s timeless, alien elegance.

Buy and read

Chornobyl, Life, and Other Disasters: A Graphic Memoir
By Yevgenia Nayberg

In this salient and slyly funny graphic memoir, Yevgenia “Genya” Nayberg recounts her childhood in 1980s Ukraine. As Genya dreams of attending a prestigious art school, she navigates the absurdities of Soviet control, the paranoia of the Cold War, and systemic antisemitism. Her world shifts forever on April 26, 1986, when a neighbor is called to a town she’s never heard of: Chornobyl. It is a deeply personal story of artistic perseverance and a rare glimpse into the life of the Soviet intelligentsia during a national catastrophe.

Buy and read

The Post-Chornobyl Library
By Tamara Hundorova
Translated by Hanna Leliv & Reilly Costigan-Humes

Tamara Hundorova explores how the Chornobyl disaster not only marked the end of the Soviet Union but also birthed a new era of Ukrainian literature. Using the “Post-Chornobyl Library” as a metaphor, Hundorova analyzes how the 1990s generation used postmodernism, irony, and “apocalyptic carnival” to process nuclear trauma. This scholarly work tracks the decolonization of Ukrainian culture as writers broke totalitarian taboos, filled historical gaps, and liberated themselves from a fractured past to enter a new, globalized landscape.

Buy and read

Cinema

Chornobyl: Chronicle of Difficult Weeks, 1988
Volodymyr Shevchenko

On April 26, 1986, reactor four at the Chornobyl nuclear power station exploded, releasing a massive radioactive cloud over Northern Ukraine and Belarus. The danger was kept secret from the public. Only two film crews, including one from the Ukrainian studio of chronicle and documentary films (Ukrkinokhronika) led by director Volodymyr Shevchenko, managed to get access. They arrived on May 14, 1986, and spent the next hundred days documenting the efforts of firefighters, engineers, military personnel, and dosimetrists dealing with the aftermath of the explosion.

Streaming

Ten Years of Alienation, 1997
Serhii Bukovskyi

Originally filmed as a series of daily dispatches for the 10th anniversary of the disaster, this documentary explores the physical and emotional state of the Zone. Bukovskyi captures the life of the “settlers” – those who refused to leave their homes despite the radiation – showcasing a deep-rooted Ukrainian connection to one’s birthplace.

Heavy Water: A Film for Chornobyl, 2007
David Bickerstaff & Phil Grabsky

Based on Mario Petrucci’s award-winning poetry, this moving film bypasses technical details to focus on the human cost. Unflinching archival footage of the ghost-town Pripyat is woven with location shots from inside the destroyed reactor, giving voice to the liquidators and families who dealt with the disaster at ground level.

Trailer

The Gateway, 2017
Volodymyr Tykhyi

Blending horror with magical realism, this film follows a family living illegally in the Exclusion Zone. Led by the mystic grandma Prisya, who claims to befriend mythological creatures, a supernatural warning of an impending catastrophe disrupts the family’s quiet, dystopian life.

Trailer

Special Operation, 2026
Oleksiy Radynskyi

An “almost disembodied” examination of military logic, this film uses CCTV footage from the 2022 Russian occupation of the Chornobyl plant. By documenting the reckless military base established at the radioactive site, Radynskyi presents each shot as forensic evidence of a modern war crime and nuclear terror.

Trailer

Photography & Visual Arts

Ukrainian photojournalist Igor Kostin created the photo story “Chornobyl” in the wake of the accident at the power plant on April 26, 1986. Over the course of a year, he documented the aftermath of the disaster, enduring radiation exposure that was five times above the permissible limit. His work received recognition at the World Press Photo competition in 1987.

Ukrainian photojournalist Viktor Marushchenko was among the first to break through bureaucratic barriers to document the Chornobyl tragedy. Over the decade, he persistently returned to the exclusion zone, recording life there despite the unimaginable circumstances. In 2001, his extensive Chornobyl archive was included in the central exhibit of the 49th Venice Biennale, curated by Harald Szeemann.

Maria Prymachenko was a Ukrainian folk artist known for her naïve art. A self-taught painter from the village of Bolotnia, near Chornobyl, she began her career with embroidery and gained international recognition later on. Friends recalled that Maria had nightmares about the impending disaster before the fourth reactor explosion. The tragedy deeply influenced her art, particularly in her magical beasts. Furthermore, her family suffered personally as her nephew, Valerii Khodymchyk, a station worker, was killed during the accident, and she dedicated several paintings to his memory.

Untitled project from Chornobyl, Maksym Dondyuk

Since 2016, Maksym Dondiuk has been working on “Untitled Project from Chernobyl,” a photographic research project that combines his images with archival materials found in the Chornobyl restricted areas. This series explores memory, territory, atomic energy, and nature. Initially reflecting on the emptiness of abandoned land, Dondiuk’s work evolved into a deeper investigation of the past, revealing fragments of life in the Chornobyl area before the nuclear disaster, including old films, photographs, postcards, and letters exposed to nature and radiation.

Painting and monumental art

The Chornobyl disaster significantly influenced a generation of Ukrainian painters from the late 1980s to the 2000s, leading to the emergence of dystopian art reflecting nuclear pollution. Notable artists include Heorhii Senchenko, Yurii Nikitin, Oleksandr Roitburd, and Khrystyna Katrakis, who used various techniques from iconography to postmodern collage.

One remarkable piece is Aleliaksandr Kishchanka’s tapestry “Chornobyl,” gifted to the United Nations to commemorate international cooperation after the explosion. The exclusion zone has also become a canvas for street artists, with abandoned buildings in Prypiat attracting both anonymous graffiti and renowned muralists.

Notable works include Guido van Helten’s mural inspired by Ihor Kostin’s photograph of a liquidator and Pantonio’s mural of blue rabbits.

The female gaze in Ukrainian cinema and literature

Published: March 13, 2026

Culture is the mirror of a nation’s soul, and throughout history, Ukrainian women have played a central role in shaping it. Over the years, particularly in recent times, they have used literature and film to navigate trauma, document diverse experiences, and shed light on their incredible resilience and unwavering strength.

The female gaze in Ukrainian cinema and literature always serves as a powerful force. The works in our curated selection address significant issues, including the tension between tradition and modernity, historical trauma, and personal development. They shed light on women’s experiences and challenge our views on masculinity, relationships, and cultural heritage.

By exploring this list, we invite you to gain a deeper understanding of the richness of Ukrainian culture, along with themes of identity and memory.

LITERATURE

Cassandra by Lesya Ukrainka
translated by Nina Murray

A dramatic poem by Ukraine’s most prominent woman writer, reimagining the myth of the Trojan prophetess Cassandra – a woman condemned to speak the truth and never be believed. The work becomes a powerful reflection on prophecy, power, and moral courage – themes that resonate strongly with modern Ukraine.

Buy and read

Olena Stiazhkina, a contemporary Ukrainian writer and historian from Donetsk, explores questions of national identity, war, and occupation in her work. Forced to leave her hometown after Russia’s occupation in 2014, she writes from lived experience in both fiction and nonfiction.

In Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary (2020), translated by Anne O. Fisher, Stiazhkina offers a deeply personal account of the early days of Russia’s invasion and a deeply intimate portrait of her city and its people.

Her novel Cecil the Lion Had to Die (2024), translated by Dominique Hoffmann, traces Ukraine’s modern history through the lives of several families in Donetsk, reflecting the country’s path to independence and Russia’s later attempt to take it away.

Both books offer powerful insights into the history and experience of Ukraine’s eastern region.

Dasein: In Defence of Presence by Yaryna Chornohuz
translated by Amelia Glaser

A testimony from the front lines of Russia’s full-scale invasion written by a woman who is at once a corporal in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a volunteer paramedic, a Marine, and one of Ukraine’s most celebrated poets.

Buy and read

My Women by Yuliia Iliukha
translated by Hanna Leliv

An urgent and poignant collection of stories of women confronted by the countless brutalities of war. It locates the voices and devastating experiences of those who have been silenced, those who have lost loved ones, those who have fought and persevered, and those who have broken down.

Buy and read

Women and War Letters from Ukraine to the Free World edited by Aurélie Bros

How would you communicate the realities of living in a warzone to someone who has never had this experience? Thirty Ukrainian women, ages 10 to 72, answered this question in letters that emanate power, depth, pain, strength, and resilience.

Buy and read

Sweet Darusya: A Tale of Two Villages by Maria Matios
translated by Michael Naydan and Olha Tytarenko

In a remote Hutsul village in the Carpathians, Darusya – considered a mute “holy fool” by her neighbors – lives with excruciating head pain and a mysterious inner life. Across three interconnected timelines, Matios traces her story from WWII through the Soviet era to the early 2000s, exploring trauma, love, survival, and the everyday magic of rural life.

Buy and read

Looking at Women Looking at War by Victoria Amelina

A diary, a war crimes account, and a tribute to women on the frontlines, the book has been called an instant classic and a searing portrait of resistance and humanity.

Buy and read

Cinema

Traces, 2026
Alisa Kovalenko & Marysia Nikitiuk

From 2014 to 2023, six Ukrainian women, survivors of sexual violence and torture, share their experiences. Traces reveals their resilience and solidarity, transforming their testimonies into an act of remembrance and justice.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: soon

Cuba and Alaska, 2025
Yegor Troyanovsky

Two female medics in Ukraine’s army, whose lives are captured via phone and body cam footage, navigate the chaos of war with bravery, humour and friendship.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Butterfly Vision, 2022
Maksym Nakonechnyi

Returning home from the front line after being held captive for two months, soldier Lilia (29 y.o.) discovers that she is pregnant after being raped by her warden. Will she manage to survive this trauma and save the child in a society that is not ready to accept either of them?

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Nice Ladies, 2024
Mariia Ponomarova

With the recent escalation of Russia’s war on Ukraine, the seemingly unbreakable bond of a vibrant cheerleading team of 50+ year old women called “Nice Ladies” is challenged. They face impossible choices between motherland and grandmotherhood, between staying and leaving.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Forever Forever, 2023
Anna Buryachkova

Kyiv, late 1990s. Tonia transfers schools to escape violence, only to find herself drawn into a restless group of teenagers testing the limits of love, friendship, and cruelty. Between first desires and reckless games, she falls for the charismatic Zhurik while longing for Sania, caught in a swirl of emotions where innocence and danger intertwine. No one escapes unscathed.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Arte.tv

The Earth is Blue as an Orange, 2020
Iryna Tsilyk

Single mother Anna and her four children live in the front-line war zone of Donbas, Ukraine. While the outside world is made up of bombings and chaos, the family is managing to keep their home as a safe haven, full of life and full of light. Every member of the family has a passion for cinema, motivating them to shoot a film inspired by their own life during a time of war.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Ivan and Marta, 2022
Serhiy Bukovskyi

Ivan Dziuba was a literary critic, publicist, and a “symbol of Ukrainian sixtiers.” Lina Kostenko recalls him as a person who always had the courage to speak the truth. As the initiator of the famous protest against the mass arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals during the premiere of Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Serhiy Parajanov, alongside Vasyl Stus and Vyacheslav Chornovil, and as the author of the landmark book Internationalism or Russification?, he inevitably drew close attention from the KGB.

Through all the anxieties and repressions associated with his dissident activities, his wife Marta stood by his side. Together they spent 62 years. Ivan and Marta is a tender story of their relationship and Ivan’s active civic stance, told by his wife, who was his steadfast support and the love of his life until the very end.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Unavailable, 2018
Nikon Romanchenko

Lyuba works at a pastry shop. Her son is in the war zone and out of communication. The mother goes in search of her son in a territory unknown to her.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Intercepted, 2024
Oksana Karpovych

Juxtaposed with images of the destruction caused by the invasion and the day-to-day life of the Ukrainian people who resist and rebuild, the voices of the Russian soldiers – ranging from being filled with heroic illusions to complete disappointment and loss of reason, from looting to committing more horrible war crimes, from propaganda to doubt and disillusionment – expose the whole scope of the dehumanizing power of war and imperialist nature of the Russian aggression.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

Blindfold, 2020
Taras Dron

Julia, a young MMA fighter, lost her fiancé in the war. She quits the sport and starts a new relationship to free herself from the role of the war hero’s widow, which is imposed on her by the environment.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix, dafilms

Diary of a Bride of Christ, 2022
Marta Smerechynska

For the young girls who choose to become the brides of Christ, their lives are full of His love. The nuns see its manifestation in everything – the removal of their hair and the renunciation of their names. 12 new Ukrainian future nuns take the cross in a remote village in Transcarpathia, near the border between Ukraine and Romania.

A large-scale celebration of the 20th anniversary of the serving of the Argentinean congregation in Ukraine. Hundreds of nuns from all over the world are at a meeting in Rome. And days of absolute silence and intimate personal stories from the nuns about the emergence of their vocation. What is it like to be a bride of Christ?

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

A Portrait Against the Background of Mountains, 2019
Maksym Rudenko

Deep in the mountains, a photographer, Paraska Plytka-Horytsvit, photographed people and the place where she lived for many years. After her death, a box with thousands of her negatives was found. This finding marks the start of the mysterious journey in search of the present and the past, as reflected in the photo negatives discovered by chance.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: dafilms

My Dear Theo, 2025
Alisa Kovalenko

Ukrainian volunteer soldier, filmmaker, and mother Alisa Kovalenko creates a testament to the power of love in the time of war – by balancing frontline routines, the horrors of the battlefield, and tender poetic letters to her little son, Théo.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: coming soon

Plai. A Mountain Path, 2021
Eva Dzhyshyashvili

This is the story of people who have saved more than they lost under the pressure of our ambivalent present, which has mixed up all the laws of earth and heaven. Their strength and weakness is their love: for their land, for their neighbours. They are both dissident and obedient at the same time, like the mountains.

They rebel against the injustices of life and bravely take all the blows of fate. To the human eye, the Malkovych family is lost among beautiful and harsh nature, but in fact, they are in a place where harmony and love, passed down through generations, have ruled since the beginning of time.

Watch the trailer
Streaming: Takflix

A Ukrainian masterpiece on the walls of Carnegie Hall

Published: December 30, 2025

The original musical notes of the legendary Ukrainian song ‘Carol of the Bells’ are now displayed on the wall of Carnegie Hall!

This month, a new piece was officially opened in Carnegie Hall’s prestigious Composers Gallery: a high-quality facsimile of the original notes for ‘Shchedryk’, the iconic Ukrainian song known worldwide as ‘Carol of the Bells’.

Its original manuscript is preserved at the Institute of Manuscripts of the V. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. The facsimile at Carnegie Hall offers an opportunity to recognize the Ukrainian origins of one of the world’s most renowned musical works.

Printed by Razom and delivered to Carnegie Hall’s archives, these notes are now on display, quickly becoming a favorite stop for guided tours of the historic venue.

It is significant that the cultural artifact is clearly identified as being composed by a Ukrainian artist, a fact that, until recently, was mainly unknown outside of the tight-knit Ukrainian diaspora. Now, they sit alongside notes by legends like Pete Seeger and just a step away from Beethoven.

Shchedryk first premiered at Carnegie Hall in 1922, when Ukrainians were fighting for freedom. Today, a century later, it has become a hallmark of the holiday season in the United States and stands as a testament to Ukrainian culture and resilience.

The 100th-anniversary concert, Notes from Ukraine, organized by Razom together with the Ukrainian Institute and the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival (UCMF) on December 4, 2022, brought this history full circle.

Dozens of volunteers helped make the concert possible, and its success has become a model for Carnegie Hall staff: ‘Make it like the Carol of the Bells concert’ is now a phrase used when planning other events.

A century after its premiere on this very stage, these notes celebrate not just a song, but a story of resilience, identity, and the enduring spirit of Ukraine.

This historic moment is now documented in the book Shchedryk. We look forward to seeing its publication in English, so it will allow the story to connect with and touch the hearts of an audience around the world.

The Composers Gallery ensures that the Ukrainian story behind Carol of the Bells will be remembered, celebrated, and shared for generations to come.

The initiative became possible in tight collaboration with the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, the Institute of Manuscripts of the V. I. Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, the Vernadskyi National Library of Ukraine, and the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations.

This is one example of how Ukrainian culture is being reclaimed and properly recognized worldwide. Join us in ensuring Ukraine’s story is told truthfully!

Voices That Endure: New Ukrainian Books for a World That Must Listen

Published: September 12, 2025

As Ukrainians fight for their freedom, they never stop speaking to the wider world—telling stories that carry grief and hope, rage and resilience, loss and love. This year, several powerful new books have been released in English, ensuring that Ukrainian voices are heard far beyond the battlefield. These works are not only literature; they are testaments of endurance, identity, and truth.

Artem Chapeye

Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns

Translator: Zenia H. Tompkins

Artem Chapaye, a journalist and novelist turned soldier, once embraced pacifism. In this book, he reckons with what happens when war is thrust upon “ordinary people.” His raw account challenges readers to consider the choices forced upon Ukrainians when survival itself is at stake.

Danielle Leavitt

By the Second Spring

Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine

Through seven deeply human portraits, Danielle Leavitt chronicles a year of war that reshaped lives forever. Her prose brings readers into kitchens, streets, and hospital rooms, revealing intimate moments that show not just suffering, but also endurance and unexpected tenderness in wartime.

Victoria Amelina

Looking at Women, Looking at War

Prose translated by Daisy Gibbons
Poetry translated by Uilleam Blacker

The final work of the late Victoria Amelina, one of Ukraine’s brightest literary voices, is both a witness account and an elegy. On the evening of June 27th, 2023, Amelina and three international writers stopped for dinner in the embattled Donetsk region. When a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant, Amelina suffered grievous head injuries, and lost consciousness. She died on July 1st. She was thirty-seven. She left behind an incredible account of the ravages of war and the cost of resistance. Honest, intimate, and wry, this book will be celebrated as a classic.

THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING winner

Olia Hercules

Strong Roots

This is an ode to the land, to ideas of home and belonging, and to family stories and recipes passed down the generations – the tang of sour cherries, the best way to make borsch. It is an account of resilience in the hardest of circumstances. Strong Roots brims with hope and grief. It lays bare the compromises and betrayals of generations struggling and surviving through war, peace, invasion and exile. It is an uplifting reminder of how much the human spirit can endure when born from a land rich with strong roots.

To meet Olian Hercules and two more Ukrainian writers as they explore what it means to live with, remember, and resist occupation, join us on October 24 at an event that is part of Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival. Secure your tickets here.

Women and War

Letters from Ukraine to the Free World

Edited and translated by Aurélie Bros

These books remind us that war is not only fought on the frontlines, but also in stories, memories, and the will to speak truth to the world.

Look for some of these authors during Razom’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival in October – and most of all, seek out their books. By reading them, you honor their courage, carry their voices forward, and ensure that Ukraine’s story is never silenced.

Razom Celebrates Women in Translation Month

Published: August 5, 2025

Women in Translation (WiT) Month, celebrated annually in August, is an initiative focused on celebrating women writers from around the world – especially those writing in languages other than English. A fully volunteer-led movement, WiT was started by a book blogger and lifelong bibliophile Meytal Radzinski in 2014 and has become a staple of the literary community since. WiT aims to celebrate and promote translated literature by women and highlight the underrepresentation of women authors in translated works – a gender imbalance where a disproportionate number of translated books are written by men and come from Western European countries. We invite you to celebrate WiT Razom (together) with us by seeking out, reading, discussing, and sharing books written and translated by Ukrainian women. We share a few options to get your exploration started below.

Algometry by Iryna Vikyrchak (translated by Nina Murray)

Algometry is a lyrical portrait of the generation of Ukrainians who grew up and were shaped by the common and individual painful inner and outer experiences, to become the most resilient and brave nation. Algometry is a term of physiology and neurology, but it is not the physical pain that is the recurring motif of the book: the speaker, a millennial woman who grew up in Western Ukraine in the 90s, takes us through the three thematic corridors emphasizing emotional sensitivity, hyper-empathy, and inner strength.

Ivan and Phoebe by Oksana Lutsyshyna (translated by Nina Murray)

Married couple Ivan and Phoebe grapple with questions about family, tragedy, and independence. Although protagonist Ivan tells the story, Phoebe’s voice rings through the text. The two reflect on the harrowing aftermath of revolution: torture at the hands of the KGB and each other. Ivan refuses to talk about his pain, while Phoebe recounts her past wounds through poetic monologues. The story bounces between politically charged cities like Kyiv and Lviv and Ivan’s small, traditional hometown of Uzhhorod. As characters come to exercise their rights to free speech and protest, they must also reevaluate the norms of marriage and home life. These initially appear to be spaces of peace and harmony but are soon revealed to be hotbeds of conflict and multigenerational trauma.

Love Life by Oksana Lutsyshyna (translated by Nina Murray)

Love Life, the second novel by the award-winning Ukrainian writer and poet Oksana Lutsyshyna, follows Yora, an immigrant to the United States from Ukraine. A delicate soul who is finely attuned to the nuances of human relations, Yora becomes enmeshed with Sebastian, a seductive acquaintance who suggests that they share a deep bond. But the relationship ends, sending her into a period of despair and grief. Full of mystic allusions, Love Life is a fascinating story of self-discovery amidst the complexities of adapting to a new life.

The God of Freedom by Yulia Musakovska (translated by Olena Jennings)

In Yuliya Musakovska’s newest poetry collection, The God of Freedom, she reveals, facet by facet, the landscape of a turbulent, contemporary Ukraine. Equal parts intimate and expansive, the poems follow the societal struggles of women and their families, the trauma of returning soldiers, and the peoples’ future under the shadow of war and its tumultuous past.

Cecil the Lion Had to Die by Olena Stiazhkina (translated by Dominique Hoffman)

In Cecil the Lion Had to Die, Olena Stiazhkina follows four families through radical transformations when the Soviet Union unexpectedly implodes, independent Ukraine emerges, and neoimperial Russia occupies Ukraine’s Crimea and parts of the Donbas. Just as Stiazhkina’s decision to transition to writing in Ukrainian as part of her civic stance–performed in this book that begins in Russian and ends in Ukrainian–the stark choices of family members take them in different directions, presenting a multifaceted and nuanced Donbas.

https://bookshop.org/p/books/cecil-the-lion-had-to-die-olena-stiazhkina/18801733

My Women by Yuliya Iliukha (translated by Hanna Leliv)

Yuliia Iliukha’s My Women, translated from Ukrainian by Hanna Leliv, is an urgent and poignant story collection of women confronted by the countless brutalities of war. It locates the voices and devastating experiences of those who have been silenced, those who have lost loved ones, those who have fought and persevered, and those who have broken down.

Forgottenness by Tanja Maljartschuk (translated by Zenia Tompkins)

An award-winning novel from one of Ukraine’s most prolific contemporary authors, Forgottenness tells a spellbinding story of belonging and uprootedness, as understood by two exiles across time.

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails by Halyna Kruk (translated by Amelia M Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk)

These stunning poems of witness by one of Ukraine’s most revered poets are by turns breathless, philosophical, and visionary. Leading readers into the world’s darkest spaces, Kruk implies that the light of language can nevertheless afford some measure of protection. Naming serves as a shield, albeit a wooden one.

Lost in Living by Halyna Kruk (translated by Dzvinia Orlowsky and Ali Kinsella)

Lost in Living presents Halyna Kruk’s unpublished work from the immediate “pre-invasion” years when life in Ukraine was marked by turmoil but full-scale war was not yet normalized. In these “dear poems that don’t pain [her] like those about the war do,” Kruk uses imagery and tone to underscore poetic agency, at times juxtaposing figurative language with a calm, direct voice to bring her poems to life. Nature cannot be relied on to sustain nor renew, and life is shown to be fundamentally vulnerable.

The Museum of Abandoned Secrets by Oksana Zabuzhko (translated by Nina Murray)

Spanning sixty tumultuous years of Ukrainian history, this multigenerational saga weaves a dramatic and intricate web of love, sex, friendship, and death. At its center: three women linked by the abandoned secrets of the past–secrets that refuse to remain hidden.

Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko (translated by Halyna Hryn)

Called “the most influential Ukrainian book for the 15 years of independence, Field Work in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko is the tale of one woman’s personal revolt provoked by a top literary scandal of the decade.

Read. Share. Advocate.

Literature is a tool for amplifying Ukrainian voices – especially women’s voices during WiT Month. Read these books, share them, and use them in your advocacy.

Learn more about Ukrainian books at razomforukraine.org/razom-literature