HURI Books

05/28/2026

✨ Exciting news for Ukrainian literature on the global stage! ✨

The American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) has announced the recipients of its 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞, honoring two outstanding works published by the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University.

This year's prestigious prize is shared by:
🔹Maxim Tarnawsky for his translation of Valerian Pidmohylnyi’s urban masterpiece, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺 (2025).
🔹Nina Murray for her translation of Lesia Ukrainka’s powerful poetic drama, 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘢 (2024).

Huge congratulations to the winners! Thank you for your brilliant work and dedication to bringing vital Ukrainian classics to English-speaking audiences around the world.

05/21/2026

🌿While embroidery is often associated with domestic crafts, in the context of the Soviet , it became a sophisticated strategy for psychological and cultural survival.

In the 1940s and 1950s, hundreds of thousands of women were sentenced to Soviet forced labor camps. The regime targeted participants and supporters of the national liberation movement (OUN and UPA), their female relatives, nuns, former Ostarbeiters branded as "traitors" upon their return from Germany, and women from wealthy and educated families stripped of their land. Only about half of them survived.

In her groundbreaking anthropological study, 𝘚𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘭 𝘢𝘴 𝘝𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺: 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘨, translated by Lidia Wolanskyj, Oksana Kis explores how embroidery became one of the most common forms of creative activity among imprisoned women. For the prisoners, this typical craft acquired a powerful meaning—serving as an easily recognizable marker of "Ukrainianness" and a manifestation of their feminine identity. Embroidery also served as a profound form of therapy, a way to preserve their sanity, and a tool for forming a united front of sisterhood.

As with Anne Applebaum’s 𝘎𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘨: 𝘈 𝘏𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺, Kis’s work fills a massive gap in scholarship, offering a deeply moving look at how the cultural spirit can thrive over totalitarian repression.

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

05/16/2026

What do the Ukrainian Carpathians sound like in English?

On May 16, we celebrate the birthday of Тарас Прохасько/Taras Prochaśko, a master of philosophical reflection and a leading voice of contemporary Ukrainian literature. He is known for a measured and precise style of writing that is marked by delicacy, fabulism, and experiment through narration and form.

𝘌𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘴: 𝘞𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘉𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘳, translated by Ali Kinsella, Mark Andryczyk, and Uilleam Blacker, with an introduction by Mark Andryczyk, collects the author’s first three publications (𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘢’𝘴 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴, 𝘍𝘔 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢, and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦) and presents them in English translation in one volume. In these early works, Prokhasko explores various ways of telling a tale, while offering readers captivating prose that invites a reconsideration of the act of storytelling.

🔸𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘢’𝘴 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘋𝘢𝘺𝘴 explores the essence of being through four experimental stories that blur the lines between reality and the subconscious.

🔸𝘍𝘔 𝘎𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘢 is a collection of texts that reflect on family, botany, and the mountains, originally written for daily radio broadcasts.

🔸The short novel 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘚𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦 creates a mythical Carpathian universe where sorcerers and soldiers navigate an alternative history of the twentieth century.

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

05/08/2026

On Remembrance and Reconciliation Day, we commemorate the memory of all people whose lives were affected by World War II. For Ukraine, World War II is a part of a longer story that continues into the present. This reading list brings together history, essays, and poetry that explore the Ukrainian dimension of , offering perspectives that still resonate today:

🔸𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 by Alex Averbuch, translated by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochinsky—a collection of poems, spanning the Holocaust, World War II, and the current Russo-Ukrainian war.
🔸𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 by Iya Kiva, translated by Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk—a collection of poems that combines memories of the past and impressions of the present in Ukraine.
🔸𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘯 𝘠𝘢𝘳: 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥 edited by Ostap Kin, translated by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin, introduced by Ostap Kin—this collection is the first to bring together the poetic responses of Jewish and non-Jewish Ukrainian writers from the Soviet and post-Soviet eras to commemorate a tragic chapter of the .
🔸𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘯 𝘠𝘢𝘳 by Marianna Kijanowska, translated by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochinsky, introduced by Polina Barskova—honoring the victims of the , this collection of stirring poems uses imagined first-person voices to convey the harrowing experiences of ordinary civilians leading up to the massacre at Babyn Yar.
🔸𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 (coming this summer) by Alexei Nikitin—an epic novel about the mysterious fate of Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Ilya Goldinov during World War II, whose files remained buried under the KGB’s “top secret” label for 70 years.
🔸𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 by Serhii Plokhii—this collection of essays offers a comprehensive analysis of Ukrainian history, spanning from the Cossack era to the tragedies of the Holodomor and World War II to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the establishment of independence.
🔸𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘍𝘦𝘢𝘳 by Ola Hnatiuk, translated by Ewa Siwak—this study presents a compelling portrait of Lviv’s ethnically diverse intelligentsia (doctors, academics, and artists) during WWII, navigating the total collapse of social norms during the Soviet and N**i occupations.

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

05/04/2026

Today, we celebrate Iya Kiva's birthday, a Donetsk-born poet, translator, and journalist whose life and work have been reshaped twice by the russo-Ukrainian War. Now she lives in Lviv.
Kiva's poetry has become a vital example of resistance that speaks to the world about Ukraine’s struggle by demonstrating the profound spiritual resilience and strength of its people in the face of imperial aggression. Her masterfully crafted poems carry multiple meanings, reaching in different directions across borders and cultures.
Kiva's latest collection, 𝘚𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘊𝘺𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘓𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 (translated by Amelia Mukamel Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk), projects a belief that, even when life is shaken to its core, the fundamental values of freedom, safety, and cooperation remain worth fighting for.

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

05/03/2026

Join us on this coming Wednesday, May 6! ⬇️⬇️

📣 Please join us on May 6 for a book launch and discussion with author Alex Averbuch and translators Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochinsky. Oleh Kotsyuba will host the conversation about 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴, a bilingual poetry collection that transports readers to Averbuch’s homeland of eastern Ukraine. The book is available from HURI Books

📍 ONLINE | Wednesday, May 6 at 2:00-3:30 pm EDT

💙 Alex Averbuch is a poet, translator, and interdisciplinary scholar who often draws on archival materials in his poetry. He is an assistant professor of Ukrainian literature and collegiate fellow at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

💡 Amid the bloody destruction brought by Russia’s war of aggression, the poet toils in fields of memory, reaping lyrics from family archives and mementos to amass testaments to the complex and painful histories of this place and its peoples. A family tree, letters to home, and the faint scent of the grandmother’s dress kept in the back of a closet speak to histories of inter-ethnic violence, WWII forced laborers, and the Holocaust. Mixing dialects, styles, registers, and voices, 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴—presented in a bilingual edition—defiantly cries out in its rage and longing toward reconciliation of the self and other.

🔗 Learn more about the book: https://books.huri.harvard.edu/books/furious-harvests

🔗 Learn more about the event: https://www.huri.harvard.edu/event/furious-harvests-book-talk-discussion-alex-averbuch-oksana-maksymchuk-max-rosochinsky

🔗 RSVP for the Event: https://www.facebook.com/share/17WRTygPvm/

💛 This event is organized by HURI Books, the publishing program at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

📘 “trees are budding with war” from:
How to Survive What Has Already Happened

trees are budding with war
salty like an explosion—war

fear of famished deserts begotten in us—by war

a jug filled with burning lead
it offers to us like a sacrament—war

with its faded eye glares
into faces
gathered into knots of war

feels the stumps of dwellings
with its greasy tentacles—war

out of unbroken mirrors
squeezes flowers of war

prettying up
she weaves into a wreath
of shame
the innards of homes
names and toponyms unknown to her

bedecked in blossoms of death
on its tremulous head, it trudges on
an ancient herbarium—war

a worn-out expired rattle—war
a creeping bag lady—war

gray and grim
its chin tied to its head
laid out on the table, unwashed and dumb—war

and nobody dares bury it

05/01/2026

We have some bittersweet news: our fantastic publicist Diana Gor has received a full-time job offer (which we’re genuinely thrilled about!) and will soon be moving on from HURI Books.

Which means… we now need someone brave.

We’re looking for a part-time, temporary publicist to help us keep Ukrainian books in English visible in a world that doesn’t always make that easy.

In an ideal universe, this would be a full-time position—because the work absolutely deserves it. In this universe, however, we don't have the funding and there's a hiring freeze at the university, so we’re looking for someone who can jump in, roll up their sleeves, and help us keep the momentum going for the time being.

What the job actually involves:
– Pitching Ukrainian books (sometimes fiercely) to major newspapers, journals, and review outlets;
– Talking to editors—some brilliant, some busy, some… not always immediately enthusiastic;
– Following up, persisting, and finding creative ways to get books noticed;
– Helping us think strategically about where these books belong and who should be reading them;
– And much more!

What we’re looking for:
– Experience with publicity in book publishing (essential!);
– A working awareness of Ukraine and its culture today (or the willingness to learn quickly);
– A certain tolerance for silence, rejection, and the occasional difficult conversation;
– A sense of humor definitely helps!

What we offer:
– Flexible hours;
– Remote work possibility (US only);
– Compensation negotiated based on experience.

This is (for now) a small role, but not a small job. If this sounds like you—or like someone you know—please get in touch (email Oleh Kotsyuba at [email protected]) or share widely. THANK YOU!

04/30/2026

We inherit the decisions of our ancestors—choices that were, at times, far from noble, interwoven with war, deportations, ethnic cleansing, and state-organized famine. Yet, we can come to a point in our lives when it is possible to reconcile these lingering pains. By forgiving and integrating this complex experience, we cease fighting in a mnemonic battlefield and begin to move toward integrity.

In his poetry collection 𝘍𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘴 (translated by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochinsky), Alex Averbuch captures this very struggle: the painful search for inner peace and the reclamation of the "self" from the fragmented wreckage of history.

***
I forgave myself for
my Ukrainian great-grandfather who joined a pogrom
against my Jewish great-grandfather
I forgave my Polish great-grandmother
who tore at the braids of my Jewish great-grandmother
I forgave myself for my moskal great-grandfather
who took the last bit of food from my Ukrainian great-grandmother
I forgave my Jewish great-grandmother
who informed on my Ukrainian great-grandfather
they are all here now
at the last supper
of my body
leaning on the table
each of them pulls
at my heart
rises up
carves out a slice
trots it out look
this is ours
and I have no time to ask with my every torn piece
why am I on the line?
eat my flesh
in memory of yourselves
drink of me, dearly beloved
grandma
grandpa

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

04/30/2026

It takes courage to speak about complex and horrific events that have been silenced. In her poetry collection 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘝𝘰𝘪𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘯 𝘠𝘢𝘳 (translated by Oksana Maksymchuk and Max Rosochynsky; introduction by Polina Barskova), Marianna Kijanowska breaks this silence and dares to look into the abyss of the traumatic past by raising difficult questions about memory, responsibility, and honoring those who experienced the unbearable.

***
in order to bear witness I need not survive—
I only need to persist for the sake of the voice
to survive in this war cursed by all that’s divine
would be a betrayal a mortal offense
I lie under the weight of the hardened sky
bodies still warm or at least so they seem
a bullet is lodged in my chest, do not
disturb my circles, clot nicely, I plead
the sky’s within reach so close to the heart
in order to bear witness I must persist, get out
they shoot in short bursts—and terror builds up
the living go mad, I’m going out of my mind
I felt terror twice: first when Valik was shot
yet all I could feel was weariness, thirst, no despair
then mama told me how our David was burned
alive right in front of their house in Irpin near Kyiv
the lot fell to me—to persist for the sake of those
all around to the left to the right everywhere
I heard someone’s breathing a moment ago it stopped
I need to persist in order to witness forgive me

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

04/27/2026

As we continue , we highlight another work from the anthology 𝘉𝘢𝘣𝘺𝘯 𝘠𝘢𝘳: 𝘜𝘬𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥, edited by Ostap Kin and translated by Ostap Kin and John Hennessy: 𝘛𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘑𝘦𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘩 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 by Maksym Rylskyi, a prominent Ukrainian poet, translator, and leading figure of the group.

Oh, people who gave the earth great geniuses,
People who сarry from antiquity
A grand, honorable spirit despite wild slander—
I bow down before you!

We ate the same bread, drank the same water.
We shared, like brothers, joy and sorrow,
And for this land—to keep it free—
We will not hesitate to give our lives.

Once again, endless joy will spread,
From the bloody fight a time of victory
Will resume, and the great Marx and Heine
Will shine for us, and for you—our prophet Taras.

Though the storm is furious as a beast—we’ll overcome it.
Through the flames and smoke of battle
we walk courageously,
With a witty smile, like the gray Moikher Sforim—
Like our Shvartsman—with a sword.

No one will break us, because we’re not divided,
We walk shoulder to shoulder through darkness,
troubled times,
Not to die, but to live, the Jews, Ukrainians!
Let the people live!

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

04/26/2026

☢️ It seems that today we know more than ever before about the history of the tragedy. However, society hasn't yet developed a common understanding of Chornobyl, especially as it relates to the question of using nuclear energy to deal with the challenges of economic growth and climate change. Facts and history are twisting, and the determination of “truth” relies on the interpretation of some politicians, regimes, and countries, leaving the threat of nuclear disaster unresolved globally.

In his book 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦, Serhii Plokhii points to the necessity of establishing a consensus on what happened in , the consequences of the disaster, and the lessons it teaches.

“An essential truth about Chornobyl is that we cannot live with conflicting 'truths' about the same event created and disseminated within isolated national, social, or cultural spaces. It was just such 'truths'that created the monstrous Chornobyl disaster: authoritarian control over economy and society, lack of free discussion and distribution of scientific information, and disregard for human life and health in the pursuit of allegedly higher economic or political goals, to name a few. ... We must reach agreement on the political, economic, and social conditions that produced disasters in the past if we are to prevent future catastrophes that may threaten the existence of humankind as a whole.”

Swipe the carousel to learn more details about the events of that time ➡️

Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University