Voices from the Frontlines: Artem Chapaye, Artem Chekh and Iryna Tsilyk in Conversation with Professor Tamara Hundorova

Voices from the Frontlines: Artem Chapaye, Artem Chekh and Iryna Tsilyk in conversation with Professor Tamara Hundorova

6:15pm – Registration
6:30pm – Program
7:30pm – Book Signing & Wine Reception

The evening will be mostly in Ukrainian.

Tickets

We are pleased and honored to host this event and so proud that our guests are representing Ukraine at this year’s PEN World Voices Festival.

Artem Chapeye is a Ukrainian writer, reporter, translator and activist. He writes creative nonfiction as well as popular fiction. He is a four-time finalist of the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award. He had a career breakthrough when his second book TRAVELING WITH MAMAYOTA: IN SEARCH OF UKRAINE (2011) was shortlisted for the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award. He was also recognised for his near-future dystopia THE RED ZONE (2014), migration novel THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD (2015), short story collection THE UKRAINE (2018), and post-apocalypse THE WEATHERING (2021). An avowed pacifist and a volunteer translator of Ghandi, he nevertheless decided to join the armed resistance against Russian invasion in 2022.

Artem Chekh is Ukrainian writer, the author of more than 10 fiction and non-fiction books, mostly known for his latest ABSOLUTE ZERO, DISTRICT D, WHO ARE YOU?. Born in Cherkasy, Artem Chekh lives in Kyiv. He’s married to filmmaker lryna Tsilyk and they have a son. Artem Chekh’s books were published in English, German, Polish, Czech, Georgian and have got Joseph Conrad-Kozienowski Literary Prize (2019), BBC Book of the Year (2021) and other awards. “Who Are You?” is screened by lryna Tsilyk, the film “Rock. Paper. Grenade” was premiered in 2022. Over the years of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Artem Chekh served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces twice-in 2015-2016 and now. His first experience of being a soldier is brightly depicted in the book “Absolute Zero” that became some kind of a milestone for the author.

lryna Tsilyk is Ukrainian filmmaker and writer. She is the director of the award-winning documentary film The Earth Is Blue As an Orange. lryna is also known for her fiction film Rock. Paper. Grenade, based on the novel WHO AM I? by Ukrainian writer and lryna’s husband Artem Chekh. lryna Tsilyk is the author of eight books published in Ukraine. Many of her poems and short stories have been translated into multiple languages. lryna also publishes non-fiction texts in different international publications. She lives in Kyiv together with her son, while Artem Chekh serves in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Tamara Hundorova is Principal Research Scholar at Shevchenko Institute of Literature (Ukraine) and Associate Fellow at Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. Currently she is a Visiting  Scholar and Lecturer at Princeton University.  She is also the member of PEN Ukraine and the author of eleven books including Lesia Ukrainka. Knyhy Sybilly (2023), The Post-Chornobyl Library. The Ukrainian Postmodernism of the 1990s (2019), Franko i/ne Kameniar (2006); Femina melancholica. Stat’ i kul’tura v gendernij utopii Ol’hy Kobylians’koi (2002) and others. Tamara Hundorova is a former Fulbright Scholar, and a recipient of many distinguished fellowships, including Yacyk and Shklar fellowships (HURI, USA), Foreign visitors fellowship (Hokkaido University, Japan), MUNK School of Global Affair fellowship (University of Toronto, Canada), and Fellowship of Philipp Schwartz-Initiative of Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (Gissen University, Germany).