Poet as Witness: Ukrainian Poets in Defense of Their Country

by English-language translations by Amelia Glaser, Ilya Kaminsky, and Katie Farris, offering audiences a rare opportunity to hear these poems both in the original Ukrainian and in translation. This event will be moderated by Amelia Glaser. Chornohuz, a soldier and 2024 Shevchenko Prize laureate, writes from the front lines with a soldier s sober eye, turning the strange and the ordinary alike into moments of startling clarity; Panasiuk s work moves fluidly between the intimate and the historical, tracing how war reshapes language itself. The evening will also honor the poetry of Maksym Kryvtsov, the poet and soldier killed in action in January 2024, whose work has come to stand as one of the defining testimonies of this war: poems written in the trenches that speak with extraordinary clarity about loss, brotherhood, and what it means to fight for one s homeland. Translated by Larissa Babij, his work will be published in 2027 by Jantar Press. This event is presented in partnership with Razom Ukraine and the People s Poetry Gathering partners. The People’s Poetry Gathering is co-presented by City Lore, Bowery Poetry, and Poets House. Founded as a biennial event in 1999 by City Lore and Poets House, with Bowery Poetry joining soon after, The People’s Poetry Gathering assembles poets from New York City and beyond to pursue discourse, exchange, and cultural preservation through poetry. In 2026, the Gathering returns to Lower Manhattan for the first time in twenty years. Find other People s Poetry Gathering programs at Poets House HERE Find a comprehensive list of all People’s Poetry Gathering programs HERE The suggested donation for this event is $10. All donations benefit Poets House. You will be able to choose your contribution amount when you RSVP online or at the door. All are welcome; no one will be turned away for lack of funds. By attending or participating in this program, you agree to abide by our Community Agreement. Events at Poets House are popular, and seating is first-come, first-served. About the Poets: Yaryna Chornohuz is the author of three collections of poetry, as well as a senior corporal in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She enlisted in the Ukrainian military in 2019 and served as a soldier and medic in the 140th Marine Reconnaissance Battalion. She was awarded a Medal for Lifesaving in 2022. She is a winner of the Shevchenko Prize for poetry (2024). She has been included in Focus magazine’s list of 100 most influential women in Ukraine. She has traveled to the US to testify before Congress on the need for funding Ukraine’s military defense. She has been profiled in the New Yorker and the New York Times for her poetry, activism, and military service. Before joining the Armed Forces, Chornohuz studied philology at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Lesyk Panasiuk is a Ukrainian poet, translator, artist and designer, member of PEN Ukraine, service member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He is the author of 7 poetry collections in Ukrainian. His works have been translated into dozens of languages. His book Letters of the Alphabet Go to War was published in early 2026 by Sarabande Books, both in the original and in English translation by Ilya Kaminsky and Katie Farris. Panasiuk is the co-author of a type of short poetic form Poetry Bug that employs a 3-line pattern (2–2–2). He is a translator and co-translator of 6 poetry collections, 3 literary anthologies, and 1 libretto, including Ukrainian translations of poetry collections by Valzhyna Mort and Ilya Kaminsky. Amelia Glaser is a Professor of Literature at UC San Diego. She is the author of Jews and Ukrainians in Russia’s Literary Borderlands (2012) and numerous other volumes. Her translations, from Ukrainian, Russian, and Yiddish, include Halyna Kruk’s A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails, cotranslated with Yuliya Ilchuk (Arrowsmith, 2023), short-listed for The Griffin Prize. She is currently writing a book about contemporary Ukrainian poetry.