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Ukraine

An overhead shot of an empty brick elevator shaft
Paul Sableman, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr
vox
By Iryna Shuvalova
Speech and solitude intertwine in this poem by Ukraine’s Iryna Shuvalova.
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Multilingual
A sunset behind a line of trees
Photo by Niels Weiss on Unsplash
vesper
By Iryna Shuvalova
do you see—the trees have gathered at the gates in the twilight
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Multilingual
The covers of the books featured in the list
Your #IWD2023 Reading List
By Words Without Borders
In honor of International Women’s Day 2023, WWB recommends 10 forthcoming books written and translated by women and published by small presses.
Illuminated highways in Kyiv at night
Photo by Levi Kyiv on Unsplash
a moving grove
By Iryna Shuvalova
go escape while you can go escape
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
MultimediaMultilingual
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist: Sweetlust, Stravaging Strange, Black Foam, and...
The Watchlist: February 2023
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books translated from Arabic, Croatian, Spanish, and Russian.
The covers of the books featured in the list
World Kid Lit: The Best of 2022
By Jackie Friedman Mighdoll, Johanna McCalmont & Claire Storey
Join the editors of the World Kid Lit blog on a tour of their favorite international children's books of 2022, from picture books to YA fiction and graphic novels.
A black and white image of a hairbrush with an engraved handle
Photo by Michèle C., licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
The Making of Tenderness
By Lyuba Yakimchuk
and where do they make this tenderness / as the war rages on around them?
Translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Maksymchuk
MultimediaMultilingual
A bust of Lenin lying on the grass
Photo by Daniil Onischenko on Unsplash
Apartment No. 9: Goodbye, Lenin!
By Oleksiy Chupa
“We toppled Lenin!” exclaimed Firman after a dramatic pause.
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
The book covers of Animals in Our Days, Brisbane, Flowers of Lhasa, Radio Siga, Linea Nigra, and...
The Watchlist: May/June 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Tibetan, Vietnamese, Arabic, Russian, Spanish, and Croatian.
A black-and-white image of battered market kiosks
Photo copyright © Kseniya Fuchs
Conservation
By Kseniya Fuchs
I knew I was born here and I would die here.
Translated from Ukrainian by Ali Kinsella
The Lights of the Donbas
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
then there’s the war / that flabby, shriveled, animal word “war”
Translated from Russian by Yuliya Charnyshova & Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler
The book covers of At the Edge of the Woods, When Women Kill, People from Bloomington, Let Us Believe...
The Watchlist: April 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends noteworthy new books translated from Ukrainian, Indonesian, Persian, Japanese, and Spanish.
February 23, 2022
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
“second time I’ve lost my home,” she utters with hatred / “officially, this time”
Translated from Ukrainian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler & Yuliya Charnyshova
Until the Threads Burn to Ash
By Aleksey Porvin
Hold an assault rifle with my hand, use my mouth
Translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler
There’s No Getting Out
By Olga Bragina
we won't recognize this city anymore
Translated from Russian by Elina Alter
Multilingual
A watercolor of a middle-aged woman from the shoulders up
An image from Igort's "The Story of Serafima Andreyevna," translated by Jamie Richards.
Voices from Ukraine: A Reading List
By the Editors of Words Without Borders
While some of this writing engages directly with the country's history of armed conflict with Russia, the majority addresses more quotidian themes.
Letter to Ukraine
By Danyil Zadorozhnyi
Like the border between the word leave / and the concept of returning
Translated from Russian by Isaac Stackhouse Wheeler & Reilly Costigan-Humes
Doors
By Żanna Słoniowska
“That evening they rang the doorbell . . . . I never saw him again.”
Translated from Polish by Antonia Lloyd-Jones
People Behaving Badly
By Susan Harris
Many greet the clean slate of a new year by pledging to chalk up only virtue and moderation.
Haunted Swing
By Andrei Krasniashikh
Above all else I appreciate skill and showmanship . . .
Translated from Russian by Tanya Paperny
MultimediaMultilingual
Chernobyl Poems
By Lina Kostenko
On the banks of the Prypiat a devil is sleeping
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Crow, Wheels
By Lyuba Yakimchuk
Joyful relatives poured vodka for themselves / and for the dead
Translated from Ukrainian by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochinsky
MultimediaMultilingual
[The whole soldier doesn’t suffer]
By Lyudmyla Khersonska
The whole soldier shrugs off hurt.
Translated from Russian by Katherine E. Young
MultimediaMultilingual
Graphic Novels at WWB: The First Ten Years
By Susan Harris
The narrative threads that weave through the last ten years tell a tale in themselves.
April 2045: The Hole
By Taras Antypovych
“And while we’ve been busy digging graves we’ve missed it all.”
Translated from Ukrainian by Uilleam Blacker
Multilingual
The Rat
By Tanya Malyarchuk
“I poisoned you, my love,” Alevtyna purrs.
Translated from Ukrainian by Michael M. Naydan
Multilingual
Panda
By Sashko Ushkalov
“Looks like you’re a liar. Is that correct?”
Translated from Ukrainian by Iryna Shuvalova
Metamorphoses of Reality: An Introduction to New Ukrainian Writing
By Oleksandr Mykhed
It is through the fantastic that the reader arrives at the everyday.
Translated from Ukrainian by Iryna Shuvalova
Multilingual
Bitte, Ich Spreche Nur Amerikanisch
By Askold Melnyczuk
                                                            …
from A Short History of Dance
By Marjana Savka
If you can, travel to the end on wire bridges / above the boiling lava.
Translated from Ukrainian by Askold Melnyczuk
Memories of Chernobyl
By Mohamed Makhzangi
The entire city began to wash itself ceaselessly . . .
Translated from Arabic by Samah Selim
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