Oksana Zabuzhko, the most widely translated contemporary Ukrainian writer and journalist, will discuss her latest book as well as topics such as memory, the strength of language, and the power of literature in times of crisis in a conversation with poet Marie Iljašenko.

Oksana Zabuzhko is a Ukrainian writer and one of the most prominent figures of contemporary Ukrainian culture. She studied philosophy at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. She garnered international acclaim for her novel Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex (1996), which sparked an unprecedented public debate and became one of the most influential books of the early years of Ukrainian independence. Her novel The Museum of Abandoned Secrets (2009) is considered the pinnacle of her prose work; this sweeping generational fresco was one of the first contemporary Ukrainian novels to intertwine personal and family memory with the repressed history of the twentieth century. Other works of hers published in English include A Kingdom of Fallen Statues: Poems and Essays (1996) and the collection of short stories Your Ad Could Go Here (2014). Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages and have won numerous international awards, including the Angelus Central European Literature Award (2013), the Taras Shevchenko National Prize (2019), and the French Legion of Honour (2023).

Marie Iljašenko is a poet, writer, and translator of Czech-Ukrainian origin. She has written three collections of poetry. In her latest, titled Wild Urban Stories (Zvířata přicházejí do města, 2025), she focuses on the big city as a home for humans, animals, and plants. Her first book, Osip Heads South (Osip míří na jih, 2015), was nominated for a Magnesia Litera award in the category Debut of the Year. She also writes short stories, columns, and essays. In 2023 she won the Tom Stoppard Prize for the best essay written in Czech, in which she addressed the topic of central European cultural identity. She translates from Polish and Ukrainian into Czech, mainly contemporary poetry. She has edited a number of books, including the anthology of war reports Bread from the Minefield (Chleba z minového pole, 2022). Since 2022 she has been working as an editor at DOX, where she prepares exhibition catalogues and other books for publication.