Oksana Zabužko: The Longest of Roads

On memory, the power of language, and the force of literature in times of crisis - and about her latest book - Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabužko will speak with poet Marie Iljašenko.

Oksana Zabužko is a Ukrainian writer and one of the most prominent figures in contemporary Ukrainian culture. She studied philosophy at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. International recognition came with her novel Field Research on Ukrainian Sex (Czech edition 2001), which sparked unprecedented public debate and became one of the most influential books of Ukraine's early independence. Her prose masterpiece is considered the novel Museum of Abandoned Secrets (Czech edition 2012), an expansive family saga linking personal and family memory with the suppressed history of the 20th century. Her short-story collection Sister, Sister (2006), the book-length conversation Ukrainian Palimpsest (2015), and most recently the essay The Longest of Roads (2026) have also been published in Czech. In this latest work, through personal recollection, she returns to the beginning of the war and examines the relationship between memory, identity, and Russian imperial politics. Her books have been translated into more than twenty languages; her awards include the Central European Literary Prize Angelus (2013), the National Taras Shevchenko Prize (2019), and the French Legion of Honour (2023).

Marie Iljašenko is a poet, writer, and translator of Czech-Ukrainian heritage. She is the author of three poetry collections - her latest, Animals Come to the City (2025), explores the metropolis as home to humans, animals, and plants. Her debut Osip Heads South (2014) was nominated for the Magnesia Litera award in the debut category. In 2023 she received the Tom Stoppard Prize for the best Czech-language essay on Central European cultural identity. She writes columns and essays for iLiteratura.cz and the National Theatre's Foyer magazine, and translates contemporary poetry from Polish and Ukrainian. Since 2022 she has worked as an editor at DOX.

The programme lasts 60 minutes and takes place in Ukrainian with interpretation into English and Czech.