Poetry Evening with Ukrainian Writer Kateryna Babkina

Please join us for a literary evening with the Ukrainian writer, poet, playwright, and public intellectual Kateryna Babkina, hosted by the Oxford University Ukrainian Society.

This evening invites you to listen, to think, to feel, to ask questions, and to share reflections. Kateryna Babkina will read from her works and speak about literature, language, memory, and contemporary Ukrainian experience. Ukrainian–English translation will be provided, and the event is open to all.

Kateryna Babkina is one of the most prominent voices in contemporary Ukrainian literature. She is the author of five poetry collections, including Lights of Saint Elm (2002), The Mustard (2011), Painkillers and Sleeping Pills (2014), Charmed for Love (2017), and It Does Not Hurt (2021). She has also written the novel Sonia (2013), the novel in short stories My Grandfather Danced the Best (2019), and two acclaimed collections of short stories, Lilu After You (2008) and Happy Naked People (2016).

In addition to her work for adults, Kateryna Babkina is the author of several extremely popular children’s books in Ukraine, including The Pumpkin Year, The Hat and the Whale, Girls Power (co-authored with Mark Livin), and Snow Heat.

Her writing has been translated into English, Swedish, Polish, German, Hebrew, French, Spanish, Romanian, Czech, and Chinese. Her plays have been staged internationally, including in Kyiv, Vienna, and Geneva. Translated publications include Ask for the Same for All (Israel), Sonia (Poland), Heute Fahre Ich nach Morgen (Austria), Happy Naked People (published in Poland and Cyprus), My Grandfather Danced Better Than Anyone Else (Poland), and Cappy and the Whale, published in English by Penguin Random House.

Kateryna Babkina has written columns for Esquire Ukraine, Le Monde, and Harper’s Bazaar, and her poetry has appeared in numerous international anthologies and journals, including The Kenyon Review (USA), Poem (UK), and Washington Square Review.

Several short films have been made based on her stories. In 2016, a short film written from her script was screened at the Cannes Film Festival in the Young Directors’ Selection.

In 2021, Kateryna Babkina was awarded the Angelus Central European Literature Award for My Grandfather Danced Better Than Anyone Else in its Polish edition. In 2022, her children’s novella Cappy and the Whale was published in English by Penguin Random House UK. Her recent work Mom, Do You Remember? was published as an e-book in 2023, in Polish translation later that year, and in hardcover Ukrainian edition in 2024.

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Host or Publisher Ukrainian Culture Weeks - Oxford University Ukrainian Society