Signals of Being: A Conversation with Ukrainian Writer Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Signals of Being: A Conversation with Ukrainian Writer Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Ukraine Working Group Event

October 22 @ 4:30 pm

041 Haldeman

Please join us for a conversation with Volodymyr Rafeyenko, one of the leading and widely translated Ukrainian authors. Born in Donetsk, Ukraine, and trained in Russian philology and culture, he wrote for many years in Russian, publishing novels, essays, and criticism. When Russia launched its war in Ukraine's East, Rafeyenko left Donetsk and settled near Kyiv, where he started writing in Ukrainian. His first Ukrainian-language novel, Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love, was shortlisted for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize, Ukraine's highest award in arts and culture, and later appeared in English translation (Harvard UP, 2022). His novel The Length of Days (English translation, Harvard UP, 2023) depicts life in occupied Donetsk. His most recent work, the play Signals of Being, or Verbum Caro Factum Est (English translation, Harvard UP, 2025), grew out of his own experience in 2022, when he and his wife were trapped in their home between Bucha and Hostomel as Russian forces advanced. Rafeyenko will speak about language and literature, his native Donetsk, the experience of occupation, and Russia's ongoing war on Ukraine.

Free and open to the public.

Book signing to follow the event.

Supported by the Lelsie Center for the Humanities and the Department of East European, Eurasian, and Russian Studies.