The Ukrainian Cultural Festival and The Center for Fiction Present Oksana Lutsyshyna and Sam Wachman

Clear

Wednesday, 7:00 pm EDT - 8:15 pm EDT October 22, 2025

The Center for Fiction
& Livestreamed

events.featured-images-portrait.40 Large

What happens when writers look across borders—not just national, but linguistic, generational, and personal—to tell stories that challenge dominant narratives? In this special event, Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Lutsyshyna joins American debut author Sam Wachman to explore the complexities of migration, queerness, and identity through fiction. Johannes Lichtman, author of Such Good Work and Calling Ukraine, will join as the evening’s moderator.

Lutsyshyna’s Love Life follows a Ukrainian immigrant seeking belonging and meaning in the United States, while Wachman’s novel, The Sunflower Boys, centers on a queer Ukrainian teenager navigating the psychological aftermath of war. Writing from opposite sides of the Atlantic about overlapping worlds, both authors probe what is lost and what can be found in translation, both literal and emotional.

This event is part of this year’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival, which takes place under the theme Against the Grain as a celebration of artists who defy convention, challenge inherited narratives, and redefine what it means to forge bold new cultural paths.

In Conversation

Oksana Lutsyshyna

Oksana Lutsyshyna

Oksana Lutsyshyna is a Ukrainian writer, translator, and poet, author of three novels, a collection of short stories, and five books of poetry, the latest of them published in English translation in 2019 (Persephone Blues, Arrowsmith). For her novel Ivan and Phoebe, she was awarded the Lviv City of Literature UNESCO Prize (2020) and the Taras Shevchenko National Award in fiction (2021). Ivan and Phoebe was published by Deep Vellum in English translation in 2023. Lutsyshyna holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Instruction in Ukrainian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she teaches the Ukrainian language and Eastern European literatures in translation.

Photo Credit: Valentyna Schneider
Sam Wachman

Sam Wachman

Sam Wachman is a writer from Cambridge, Massachusetts with Ukrainian roots. His short fiction has appeared in Sonora Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, and New England Review. Before writing The Sunflower Boys, he taught English to primary schoolers in central Ukraine and worked with refugee families in Europe and the United States.

Photo Credit: Paul Shelman
Johannes Lichtman

Johannes Lichtman

Johannes Lichtman’s debut novel, Such Good Work, was chosen as a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation. His second novel, Calling Ukraine, was named one of the best fiction books of the year by Library Journal. His stories and essays have been published by The Paris Review, The Sun, Foreign Policy, Travel + Leisure, Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. He lives in Baltimore.

Featured Books

.

Love Life

By Oksana Lutsyshyna

Published by Harvard University Press

Translated by Nina Murray

PURCHASE

Love Life, the second novel by the award-winning Ukrainian writer and poet Oksana Lutsyshyna, follows Yora, an immigrant to the United States from Ukraine. A delicate soul who is finely attuned to the nuances of human relations, Yora becomes enmeshed with Sebastian, a seductive acquaintance who suggests that they share a deep bond. But the relationship ends, sending her into a period of despair and grief. Full of mystic allusions, Love Life is a fascinating story of self-discovery amidst the complexities of adapting to a new life.
.

The Sunflower Boys

By Sam Wachman

Published by HarperCollins

PURCHASE

In many ways, twelve-year-old Artem’s life in Chernihiv, Ukraine, is normal. He spends his days helping on his grandfather’s sunflower farm, drawing in his sketchbook—a treasured gift from his father, who works in America—and swimming in the river with his little brother, Yuri. In secret, Artem has begun wrestling with romantic feelings for his best friend, Viktor. In a country where love between two boys is unthinkable, Artem has begun to worry that growing up, his life will never be normal.

Then, on a February night, Artem and Yuri are woken by explosions—the beginning of a war that will tear their life in two. The invading Russians destroy their home, killing their mother and grandfather, and leaving young Artem and Yuri to fend for themselves. Fleeing in hopes of somehow reuniting with their father, the brothers traverse the country their ancestors once fought and died for, with nothing but their backpacks and each other. Surrounded by death and destruction, Artem is certain of one thing—that whatever may come, he must keep himself and his brother alive.

A harrowing and gorgeous tale of love, identity, lost innocence, and survival set in a time of devastating war, The Sunflower Boys is a powerful, heartrending exploration of young queer love, the Ukrainian spirit, and a family’s struggle to survive.

.