Maria Artemenko

Maria Artemenko is a children’s writer with more than 8 years of experience in promoting family reading and modern Ukrainian literature for children (#alive_writers). Maria works in the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at BaraBooka. Children’s Reading Laboratory. It’s a project for anyone who is interested in modern Ukrainian children’s and young-adult literature.

Dmytro Lazutkin is a poet. He was born in November 1978 in Kyiv. Author of poetry books: “Benzyn”, “Rеd book”, “Arteriya”, “Zakladka”. Winner of numerous literary prizes, among them: “Literary Olympus”, “Smoloskyp”, “Kyiv Laurels”. Short-lister of National Shevchenko prize (2019). Dmytro Lazutkin worked as a sports commentator at the Olympic Games (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020, 2022).
He now works as a military reporter on TV.

Olena Huseinova is a Ukrainian radio host, radio producer, and writer. Since 2016, she has been working at Radio Culture (Suspilne). Currently, she is the editor-in-chief of the Radio Theater and Literary Programs Department. Since February 26, 2022, Olena has been working as a live presenter of a round-the-clock information radio marathon on Ukrainian Radio (Suspilne).

Daria Piskozub is a writer, a project manager, a co-creator of the “Fantastic talk(s)” Youtube channel, and an interviewer of world renowned SFF authors such as Leigh Bardugo, Rebecca Kuang, and Joe Abercrombie. Her debut novel “Machina”, the first installment in the tetralogy under the same name, won a “Brama” fantasy novel award in 2019.

I am an illustrator based in Kyiv. I mostly work with editorial and social projects and prefer ones related to human rights. I draw for media, books, NGOs, etc. In 2015, my partner Anna Ivanenko and I co-founded the Serigraph studio. Together we make screenprints, zines, and different visual projects.

Bogdan Kolomiychuk was born on February 19, 1984, in Khmelnytskyi region. From 2002 to 2010, he worked as an actor and the assistant to the film director of the First Theatre in Lviv. In 2017-2018, he was a co-founder and curator of the Carpathian Literary Residence project.
Since 2022, he has been serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Valentyna Vzdulska is a Ukrainian children’s writer, author of fiction and non-fiction books for children. Some of her works include “Ukrainian Treasures”, “Pluto”, “The Journey of a Leaf”, “Photofun”, and others. She also works as an editor and mentor for aspiring authors and writes reviews of children’s and young adult literature.

Tamara Duda (pen name Horikha Zernya)
Her debut novel Daughter (Bilka Publishing House) was awarded the BBC Book of the Year in 2019, and in 2021 it was ranked among 30 Iconic Books of Our Independence. In 2022, the author got the Taras Shevchenko National Prize for this book, which is the highest literature award of Ukraine. In 2021, the second novel, The Principle of Interference, was published (Bilka Publishing House).
Tamara also writes short stories and essays.

Yelyzaveta Zharikova іs a Ukrainian poet, musician, activist. She was born in Novopskov, Luhansk region, she graduated with a master’s degree from Taras Shevchenko Kyiv University. Zharikova participated in the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity (Maidan, 2014). With the beginning of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, she became a combat medic in the Territorial Defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

I was born in Kyiv. I lived through the first terrible war from 1941 to 1944, and I am currently lining through the second. In the interval between them I have lived, loved, was disappointed, got married and divorced, I have almost cursed, forgiven, written an translated, admired people and phenomena, published books, rejoiced at my recognition and awards, summarized sadness and cloudless mornings, communicated with readers, participated in social movements, got to see my great-granddaughter, grew up and, it seems, I am still growing up…