Thanks to the visionary support of our literary translation series from United Help Ukraine, we’re pleased to announce that we will be publishing Myroslav Laiuk’s beautiful novel “The world is not made”, translated by Ali Kinsella.
This novel tells the story of Inna, a contemporary Ukrainian, by enlisting the over 200-year history of her family and country. Every generation faces novel challenges, and all attempt to rise to these challenges while remaining true to themselves and their values. Combining three distinct story lines—artist Inna in France and war-torn Ukraine; revolutionary Oleksii fighting with anarchists on the steppe; and peasant Lesio in the mountains of Austro-Hungary—everyone must answer the question of what it means to make something new: a country, a person, an idea.
And furthermore, why bother?
Born and raised in a small village in western Ukraine, Myroslav Laiuk is the author of three poetry collections, two novels, and a forthcoming children’s book. He is a winner of the Smoloskyp Literary Award (Ukraine), the Kovaliv Fund Award (USA), the Oles Honchar Prize (Germany and Ukraine), and the Litakcent Literary Award (Ukraine.) His first novel BABORNIA was a finalist for the 2016 BBC Book of the Year Award in Ukraine. Laiuk’s work has been translated into eleven languages, and his poetry has been set to music by two Kyiv-based music groups of international repute: Dakh Daughters and Oy Sound System.
Ali Kinsella has been translating from Ukrainian for thirteen years. With co-translator Dzvinia Orlowsky, she was a finalist for the 2022 Griffin Poetry Prize, granted a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and shortlisted for the 2025 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She also coedited Love in Defiance of Pain (Deep Vellum Publishing, 2022), an anthology of short fiction to support Ukrainians during the war.
“The world is not made” is scheduled for release in the fall of 2026. We are grateful to have a partner in United Help Ukraine that understands the importance of bringing Ukrainian voices to the world—thank you!
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Cover design for this book was prepared by Jakub Kaminski.
Thanks to United Help Ukraine’s visionary support, we were able to publish Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s brilliant play “Signals of Being”, translated by Mark Andryczyk, which was launched on October 15, 2025, at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University. The President of United Help Ukraine, Maryna Baydyuk, delivered inspiring welcome remarks to everyone in attendance. Thank you again for such a visionary partnership in bringing Ukrainian voices to the world!
To buy Signals of Being please visit a Ukrainian Research Institute Harvard book store.
In the US Ukrainian books translated to English are represented at https://books.huri.harvard.edu/. Books in Ukrainian language are available in Amazon, as well as in Ukrainian marketplace Rozetka. Please, check delivery options before ordering.
Regarding classical Ukrainian literature, it is worthwhile to read Taras Shevchenko and Lesya Ukrainka. Ukrainian literature of the 20th and 21st centuries is represented by authors based in Ukraine as well as immigrants with Ukrainian ancestry and deep cultural roots. To learn more about Ukrainian literature of 20 century, please explore the books of Mykola Khvylovy, Valerian Pidmohylnyi, and authors that represent "Executed Renaissance", the generations of prominent Ukrainian authors who were executed or imprisoned by the Soviet regime.
The modern Russian-Ukrainian war began in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea and parts of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, followed by the full-scale invasion in 2022. Some modern authors who are writing about Ukrainian resilience and the struggle for freedom include: Serhiy Zhadan, Andrey Kurkov, and Volodymyr Rafeyenko.
United Help Ukraine Supports Ukrainian Books in USA
