Writings from Ukraine Lab : the September 2022 Slavonic items of the month

Today, the day when Putin added to his illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 the illegal annexation of four more Ukrainian regions (not fully even under temporary Russian control) following further referenda not worth the paper they were falsified on, our weekly Ukrainian blog post promotes new writing about Russia’s war against Ukraine made possible by the Ukraine Lab initiative, led by the Ukrainian Institute in London.

Image from a tweet today by @ukraine.ua (https://twitter.com/ukraine_ua/status/1575823324961157122/photo/1)

Six young writers were selected as the 2022 Ukraine Lab cohort, their prize a 6-week residency to “produce creative nonfiction pieces which will tackle global challenges through the prism of Ukraine”.  Two pieces have just been published, in English and in Ukrainian, joining two already published, and they will later be produced also in an anthology collecting all the writing that will have come out of the Ukraine Lab project.

Just out, focusing on Russia’s war against Ukraine:

• Лотерея по-українськи / Софія Челяк = Ukrainian lottery / Sofia Cheliak.
  • The Ukrainian original is available here and the English translation is available here.
• Luhansk stolen / Kris Michalowicz = Украдений Луганськ / Кріс Михайлович
  • The English original is available here and the Ukrainian translation is available here.

Out slightly earlier this month, focusing on Ukraine and the environment:

• Білий, чорний та безбарвний / Катерина Яковленко = Black, white, and colourless / Kateryna Iakovlenko
  • The Ukrainian original is available here and the English translation is available here.
• The Kyiv thickets / Jonathon Turnbull = Київські хащі / Джонатон Торнбулл
  • The English original is available here and the Ukrainian translation is available here.

All translations are by Nina Murray.  I’ll update this post when the final two essays come out.  Do have a read of these essays and promote them to others.  It is so important to have such interesting and insightful writers in these terrible times.

Readers who use Twitter can find the Ukrainian Institute in London here and Dr Sasha Dovzhyk, the curator of Ukraine Lab, here.

UPDATE, 8/10/22: 

The final two pieces from Ukraine Lab have now come out:

• The best antidote to Russia’s disinformation is to listen to Ukrainians / Phoebe Page = По який бік? / Фібі Пейдж
• Звідки ви знаєте? / Олена Козар = How do you know? Hiding in an underground car park in Kyiv / Olena Kozar.

Mel Bach