Culture

The Hidden Canon: Discover Ukrainian literary classics

A Kyiv Independent project backed by the Ukrainian Institute

Ukrainian InstituteLearn more
'Hemingway Knows Nothing': Ukraine's writers are redefining literature of war
Culture

'Hemingway Knows Nothing': Ukraine's writers are redefining literature of war

by Kate Tsurkan

When war, loss, and unimaginable suffering become routine, a book can offer a kind of lifeline — especially one by a writer who has lived through such an ordeal and tried to make sense of it. At the start of Russia’s full-scale war, some Ukrainians speculated if they’d see the rise of their own Ernest Hemingway: a writer whose books would not only capture the experience of a generation but come to define it. Yet it soon became clear that the old paradigms of war literature no longer spoke to t

News Feed

As Russia closes in on Sloviansk, this taxi driver keeps working

SLOVIANSK, Donetsk Oblast — From a brick-walled garage that barely fits the blue car parked inside, Oleksandr Richak carefully backs his taxi cab out onto the narrow street. The 42-year-old usually starts work around 8 a.m., once the early-morning rush hour of deadly Russian drone activity in the eastern front-line city subsides. As he briefly parks the car outside a damaged one-story house, his wife, Nataliia, walks over and hands him a bottle of lemon-flavored water. Her worried eyes follow

There's one massive problem with Trump's Ukraine diesel price theory

U.S. President Donald Trump has a very simple solution to the very real problem of rising diesel prices. "(President Volodymyr) Zelensky has to do one thing — he has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia,” he told reporters on Sept. 13. "Let him go after targets but not diesel fuel, because he’s causing a shortage of diesel fuel… that’s hurting the world." Trump's implication was clear — halting Ukraine's long-running, long-range drone strike campaign against Russian oil refineries would

About Culture

Our reporting on literature, films, art, and traditions from Ukraine and the latest news on culture in Eastern Europe.

Ukrainian culture
Ukrainian culture has survived centuries of Russian attempts to appropriate Ukrainian art, silence Ukrainian artists, and erase the Ukrainian language. Modern Ukrainian writers, filmmakers, and musicians — some of whom are serving on the front lines — continue to develop Ukrainian culture and fight for Ukraine’s future.
News Feed