Books at the Institute: Oleh Sentsov

Books at the Institute is pleased to present an evening in conversation celebrating the publication and translation of Oleh Sentsov’s

Diary of a Hunger Striker and Four and a Half Steps

Translated by Kate Tsurkan and Dmytro Kyyan

Thursday, September 5, 2024 at 6:30 PM

Ukrainian Institute of America
2 East 79th Street (at Fifth Avenue)
New York, NY 10075

Ms. Tsurkan will be joining the talk via live stream video from Chernivsti, Ukraine and Mr. Kyyan will be participating in person. Mr. Sentsov is currently serving alongside Ukrainian armed forces against Russian occupying troops in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya region.

Light reception to follow.

$15 General admission / UIA members free.

A remarkable two-book volume: Diary of A Hunger Striker, the first-hand account of celebrated Ukrainian filmmaker Oleh Sentsov, jailed unfairly as a political prisoner, during his 145-day-long hunger strike in a Russian prison; and Four and a Half Steps, his newest collection of short stories. Sentsov’s prison diary begins three days into his indefinite hunger strike, as he calls for the release of all political prisoners in Russia. Frank, sharp, and detailed, the diary recounts day after day of observations and thoughts about his daily life, from interactions with guards, police officers good and bad, to his thoughts on fellow writers and the world outside his cell.

Oleh Sentsov is a Ukrainian filmmaker and writer from Crimea, best known for his 2011 film Gamer. Sentsov was arrested in May 2014 in Crimea on suspicion of “plotting terrorist acts,” after participating in the Euromaidan demonstrations that led to the overthrow of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and helping deliver supplies to trapped Ukrainian troops during Russia’s occupation of Crimea. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison, causing an outcry by international human rights groups who condemned his imprisonment as a fabrication by the Russian government in an attempt to silence dissent, and calling for investigations into reports of torture and witness coercion. In 2017 he was given the PEN/Barbey Freedom to Write Award.

Sentsov’s work includes several scripts, plays, and essays, as well as two short films, A Perfect Day for Bananafish and The Horn of the Bull. In May of 2018, he went on a hunger strike to protest the incarceration of Ukrainian political prisoners in Russia. He was released from prison as part of a prisoner exchange in late 2019 as Deep Vellum sent his book of stories, Life Goes on Anyway, to print.

Dmytro Kyyan is a Ukrainian-American writer, editor, and translator from Kharkiv. From the 1990s to the early aughts he was the editor-in-chief of Foto & Video Magazine and under his direction, it became the leading publication in photography throughout Eastern Europe.

Kate Tsurkan is a writer, editor, and translator. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and elsewhere. She is the founding editor of Apofenie Magazine.

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Copies of Diary of a Hunger Striker and Four and a Half Steps will be available for purchase ($19.95) at the Ukrainian Institute of America the evening of the event.

By purchasing a book from the UIA, you are supporting its continued cultural and educational programming and the further enjoyment of its unique events by our friends and community along New York’s Museum Mile.

For further information: Please contact the Ukrainian Institute of America at (212) 288-8660 or mail@ukrainianinstitute.org.

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Title: Diary of a Hunger Striker and Four and a Half Steps

Author: Oleh Sentsov
Publisher: Deep Vellum Publishing (August 27, 2024)
Paperback: 544 pages
ISBN-10: 1646053168
ISBN-13:   978-1646053162
Item Weight: 1.45 pounds
Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.5 x 8.2 inches