“I could not have imagined a situation in which I would decide not to write a novel. But it has happened. Reality is now scarier, more dramatic than any fictional prose. Now it is necessary to write only the truth, only non-fiction. All those who can write are witnessing one of the worst crimes of the 21st century. The task of witnesses is to record and preserve the evidence of the crime. Yes, now I am a witness in a future criminal trial.”

— From Andriy Kurkov’s Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture at PEN World Voices Festival (May 2022)

Born near Leningrad in 1961, Andriy Kurkov was a journalist, prison warder, cameraman and screenplay-writer before he became well known as a novelist. His novel Death and the Penguin, his first in English translation, became an international bestseller, translated into more than 30 languages. As well as writing fiction for adults and children, he has become known as a commentator and journalist on Ukraine for the international media. Kurkov’s novel Grey Bees, translated by Boris Dralyuk, was awarded the 2023 National Book Critics Circle award. His most recent book, Diary of an Invasion (Deep Vellum, 2023), a collection of Kurkov’s writings and broadcasts from Kyiv, is a remarkable record of a brilliant writer at the forefront of a 21st-century war.

Kurkov will teach “Ukraine. Literature and Politics,” a 1-credit course, which will meet for four weekly sessions, beginning November 13. Kurkov Ukraine. Literature and Politics Syllabus

Read The NY Times review of Grey Bees (March 29, 2022) and  “How Ukraine’s Greatest Writer is Fighting for His Country,” NY Times, May 24, 2022.