Join us for readings and discussion from ground zero in Ukraine with acclaimed Ukrainian-American writer Askold Melnyczuk and special guests: human rights activist Victoria Amelina, and journalist and philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, who will participate remotely.  Their conversation will provide a better understanding of what it means to be Ukrainian - past and present.

Organized by Peter Balakian, Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor in Humanities, Professor of English; Carolyn Guile, Art & Art History; and Naomi Rood, Classics.

Co-sponsored by:  Center for Freedom and Western Civilization, Colgate Arts Council, Department of Classics, Department of History, Peace and Conflict Studies.

Image credit:  What Does Fear Dream About?, Oleksii Revika, 2021

Contact Beth MacKinnon, bmackinnon@colgate.edu or (315) 228-7276 for streaming details.

Zoom Link for attendees to register:

https://colgate.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_sdVa3sXXRN6rVVj_8rj8ZA

Guest Bios:

Askold Melnyczuk’s book of stories, The Man Who Would Not Bow, appeared in 2021.  His four novels have variously been named a New York Times Notable, an LA Times Best Books of the Year, and an Editor’s Choice by the American Library Association’s Booklist. He is also co-editor of From Three Worlds, an anthology of Ukrainian Writers.  His published translations include work by Oksana Zabuzhko, Marjana Savka, Bohdan Boychuk, Ivan Drach, and Skovoroda. His shorter work, including essays, stories, and reviews, have appeared in The Paris Review The New York Times, The Missouri Review, The Times Literary Supplement (London), The Los Angeles Times, The Harvard Review and elsewhere. He’s received a three-year Lila Wallace-Readers’ Digest Award in Fiction, the McGinnis Award in Fiction, and the George Garret Award from AWP for his contributions to the literary community. As founding editor of Agni he received PEN’s Magid Award for creating “one of America’s, and the world’s, leading literary journals.” Founding editor of Arrowsmith Press, he has taught at Boston University, Harvard, Bennington College and currently teaches at the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Most recently he has been organizing readings in support of writers in Ukraine, as well as interviewing writers for his For the Record series which appears online at Agni Online, as well as on Arrowsmith Press’s website.

An important goal of this event is to highlight Ukrainian voices during this time of war and the tremendous challenges, hardship, and suffering that accompanies it. For those looking for accessible, intellectually rich, up-to-date information, the English-language multi-media project, Ukraine World is an excellent resource. Our guest, Volodymyr Yermolenko, serves as Editor-in-Chief.

On the Ukraine World site, you can access discussions, analyses, and interviews composed, assembled, presented by Ukrainian voices.  You can also listen to his discussion on LitHub, "How Dostoevky's Classic Has Shaped Russia's War in Ukraine" and a conversation on "For The Record"  with our guest, writer Askold Melnyczuk for Agni literary journal.  

Volodymyr Yermolenko (born 1980) is a Doctor of Political Studies (France), and has a PhD in Philosophy (Kandydat Nauk, Ukraine). He is the analytics director at Internews Ukraine, one of the biggest and oldest Ukrainian media NGOs; chief editor of UkraineWorld.org, a multimedia project in English about Ukraine; Associate Professor at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy; public lecturer, columnist at Krayina Magazine and NV.ua. As a writer (non-fiction and fiction), he is the winner of Myroslav Popovych Prize (2021), Petro Mohyla Prize (2021), Yurii Sheveliov Prize (2018), Book of the Year Prize in Ukraine (2018, 2015) and others. He has authored numerous articles in international and Ukrainian media, which have been published in The Economist, Le Monde, Financial Times, New York Times, Newsweek. He has also given numerous comments to BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, France 24 etc. His texts have been published in Ukrainian, English, French, German, Russian, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish and others.

He is a member of Board of International Renaissance Foundation (OSI Network) and was a member of the Supervisory Board of Ukrainian Institute (2018-2021). He is an expert in information analysis and media literacy and architect and trainer at several media literacy projects within the activity of Internews Ukraine and UkraineWorld. He co-founded and authored the podcasts Kult:Podcast (in Ukrainian) and Explaining Ukraine (in English). He was the anchorman of TV programmes Ukraina Rozumna and Hromadske.Svit at Hromadske.ua (2016-2020). He is also the father of three daughters. (Source)

Victoria Amelina is an award-winning writer living in Ukraine and the US.  She was born in 1986 in the city of Lviv, Ukraine. Before becoming a writer, she worked in high tech as an engineering manager; she holds an MS degree in Computer Science. In 2014 she became a laureate of the Ukrainian National Literary Award Koronatsiya Slova, and released her debut novel “Fall Syndrome, or Homo Compatiens” that was shortlisted as one of the best books of the year according to the LitAkcent and Valerii Shevchuk literary awards. Her second novel “Home for Dom” won the Best Prose Book award at Zaporizhya Book Festival, and was shortlisted for numerous awards including LitAkcent Book of the Year, Lviv City of UNESCO Literary Award, and European Union Prize for Literature.

Her current project is The War and Justice Diary: Looking at Women Looking at War. This is a non-fiction project that follows the paths of journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and volunteers who document war crimes in Ukraine, often in their native regions, in their quest for justice. The heroines of the project include: human rights defender Oleksandra Matviychuk (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2022); Evgenia Podobna, a war correspondent from Irpin; a director of the Literature Museum in Kharkiv Tetyana Pylypchuk; a journalist from Chernihiv, Vira Kuryko; a Kyiv-based lawyer who works with wartime sexual violence, Larysa Denysenko; and a journalist turned soldier, Lesya Ganzha.