THE WAR IN UKRAINE: A CONVERSATION

ASKOLD MELNYCZUK is the author of four novels and the short story collection The Man Who Would Not Bow: And Other Stories. He is the founding editor of Agni and Arrowsmith Press, and co-editor of From Three Worlds, an anthology of Ukrainian writers, and Between Fury and Peace: The Many Arts of Derek Walcott. His fiction, poetry, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, the U.K.'s Times Literary Supplement, The Kenyon Review, and other publications.

CAROLYN FORCHÉ is an American poet, editor, translator, activist, and a professor at Georgetown University. Her books of poetry are In the Lateness of the World, Blue Hour, The Angel of History, The Country Between Us, and Gathering the Tribes. In 2013, she received the Academy of American Poets Fellowship given for distinguished poetic achievement. In 2017, she became one of the first two poets to receive the Windham-Campbell Prize.

CHRISTOPHER MERRILL has published eight collections of poetry including Watch Fire, for which he received the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets; many edited volumes and translations; and six books of nonfiction, including Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars; Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain; The Tree of the Doves: Ceremony, Expedition, War; and Self-Portrait with Dogwood. As the director of the University of Iowa's International Writing Program, he has conducted cultural diplomacy missions to more than 50 countries.

HÉCTOR ABAD FACIOLINCE is a Colombian writer, editor, and translator born in Medellín. He has published several books, many of which have been translated to English, Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, French, and German. Some of his titles are Asuntos de un hidalgo disoluto (1994), Basura (2000), Angosta (2004), and his more recent novel, Salvo mi corazón, todo está bien (2022). El olvido que seremos (2006), a novel about his father, has won literary prizes in Portugal and the United States.   HÉCTOR ABAD FACIOLINCE es un escritor, editor, traductor y columnista nacido en Medellín, Colombia. Ha publicado quince libros de narrativa. Entre sus novelas están Asuntos de un hidalgo disoluto (1994), Basura (2000, Premio Lengua de Trapo de Narrativa Innovadora), Angosta (2004) y La Oculta (2014). También la novela testimonial sobre la vida de su padre, El olvido que seremos (2006), que ganó premios literarios en Portugal y Estados Unidos. Este año presenta en la Feria su nueva novela Salvo mi corazón, todo está bien (Alfaguara, 2022), que relata la historia de un sacerdote bondadoso quien, a la espera de un trasplante de corazón, pone a prueba sus creencias y su optimismo inquebrantable.

OKSANA LUTSYSHYNA is a Ukrainian writer, translator, and poet, as well as the author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and five books of poetry, the latest of them translated to English in 2019. Her most recent novel, Ivan and Phoebe (Deep Vellum Publishing), earned the Lviv City of Literature UNESCO Prize (2020) and the Taras Shevchenko National Award in fiction (2021). Lutsyshyna holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature and is currently an assistant professor of  Ukrainian studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches the Ukrainian language and Eastern European literature in translation.