Victoria Amelina: Writers and War Crimes

Ukraine 242 Podcast

A conversation with Renowned Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina who has stopped writing novels. She says,“in 2022, it became impossible to write fiction (because) reality is so much more intense; it is impossible to invent stories anymore.” She now works as a war crimes researcher with the organization TRUTH HOUNDS.

In the Izium region, Victoria Amelina uncovered the war diary of fellow Ukrainian writer Volodymyr Vakulenko, who buried the diary before he was killed by the occupying forces. She found it with the aid of his father in the backyard of the family home.

Amelina now also keeps a journal of the work being done by war-crimes researchers and she has become a successful poet published by papers such as the New York Times, and various anthologies.

Victoria Amelina has been a celebrated Ukrainian author of novels and children's books since 2015, when she won several literary awards for her first book, The Fall Syndrome, about the events at Maidan in 2014. In 2017 her novel Doms Dream Kingdom was released and was shortlisted for the prestigious LitAkcent literary award and the European Union Prize for Literature in 2019. Amelina is a member of PEN International.