Are you curious about science fiction and fantasy works written by authors who either currently reside or were born in Ukraine? There are a number of such works available in English. Interestingly. the authors I was able to come up with for this list lean heavily toward fantasy over science fiction. And they tend to write excellent stuff–I’m a long-time fan of many of these authors, though I did find several short story writers in the course of researching this post who are new to me as well.

Maryna and Sergey Dyachenko

The Dyachenko husband-and-wife team are very popular fantasy authors among Russian and Ukrainian readers. Originally from Kyiv, they currently reside in California but continue to write in Russian. Two of their novels – Vita Nostra and Daughter from the Dark have been published by HarperCollins in English translation by Julia Meitov Hersey. You can read Julia’s profile of them as well as their SF/horror story “The Emperor of Death” in Future Science Fiction Digest.

Volodymyr Arenev

Volodymyr Arenev is a Kiyv-based author of fantasy novels, children’s books and an anthologist. While most popular Ukrainian fantasists are writing in Russian (it’s a much bigger market, and virtually all Ukrainian readers are able to read Russian as well), Arenev’s novels are primarily written in Ukrainian. Only a couple of his stories have been translated into English so far, and only one seems to be currently accessible: “Rapunzel” in the Eurasian Monsters anthology.

R.B. Lemberg

R.B. Lemberg is best-known for their Birdverse stories and novels. They’re an immigrant born in Ukraine who has lived in Russia and Israel before settling in the United States. Their work was nominated for the Nebula and Locus awards and published widely in US magazines and anthologies. They offer a sampler of free-to-read stories linked on their website. I’m a long-time fan of “Seven Losses of Na Re” which originally appeared at Daily Science Fiction.

Henry Lion Oldie

This is a pen name of Dmitry Gromov and Oleg Ladyzhensky a pair of very popular and award-winning writers from Kharkiv. They co-authored dozens of books and were named Europe’s Best Writers at Eurocon 2006. Several of their novels are available on Amazon, such as an epic fantasy The Songs of Peter Sliadek (see book trailer here) and humorous fantasy novel Shmagic.

The Oldie Facebook account posted an update on February 27. Both authors were safe at the moment but living in the city under siege along with their families. They had to spend the previous night in the metro station in order to avoid the bombardment. “We’re in Kharkiv,” they wrote. “We didn’t run and we won’t run. We’ll continue to live here.”

Anatoly Belilovsky

Originally from Lviv, Anatoly is a doctor practicing in New York City and an author of dozens of short stories. Many of them are collected in his recently-published collection, Halogen Nightmares and Other Love Stories. He’s also a translator from Russian with many published translations, including one in a Year’s Best volume. I highly recommend “Of Mat and Math” which I originally published in UFO1 (which will give you a clearer idea of the colorful language being used by both sides of the conflict) and “Kulturkampf,” a farcical and erudite alternate history piece. A complete bibliography is available on Anatoly’s website.

Daryna Stremetska

Daryna is a Ukrainian short story writer and BookTuber. She hosts the Bauty and Gloom channel on YouTube where she talks about science fiction, fantasy, and comics in Ukrainian. Two of her short stories have been published in English. “Animals of Ure” is free to read online in the Ukraine-based English language Thee Crows Magazine. “The Whitest Linen” was published in the Eurasian Monsters anthology edited by Margret Helgadottir.

Daria Bezzadina

Daria’s short story “The Gift” is available at Three Crows Magazine in both English and Ukrainian. I was unable to find much additional information about her work, other than that she appears to be an English-to-Ukrainian translator.

Yevhen Lyr

Lyr is a Ukranian writer, translator, and philologist. He’s an author of several books. His collection of horror short stories Still Waters Run Deep was short-listed for the Ukrainian Book of the Year award in 2018. His story “Sleepless in Enerhodar” appeared in Eurasian Monsters.

Serhiy Zhadan

Zhadan is the best-known contemporary poet in Ukraine, covered by the New Yorker, and he has written several novels as well. Among them is Voroshilovgrad, a magical realism novel set in Luhansk.

Yuri Vynnychuk

The Fantastic Worlds of Yury Vynnychuk is a collection that includes some magical realism and SF/F stories alongside humorous and literary offerings.

Oleh Shynkarenko

Kaharlyk is a little too prophetic for comfort. From the novel description: “The book is set in Ukraine after a war with Russia. A man has lost his memory because the Russian military have used his brain to control military satellites. He regains consciousness in a mysterious hospital-like building and begins a pilgrimage to find his past.”

Elana Gomel

Elana Gomel is a Kyiv-born author residing in Tel Aviv, Israel. She has published three novels, most recent of which is The Cryptids (2019). She also published a number of short stories, including one in Apex Magazine.

Yulia Vereta

Another Kyiv-born author, Vereta appears to primarily be an author of literary short stories. However, her speculative story “Time Traveler’s Shoes” was published in the inaugural issue of ParSec Magazine. She currently resides in Beijing, China.

Classic Authors

There are a number of Ukrainian-born authors who wrote and published speculative fiction in the 20th century (see comments on this post for a helpful list provided by Pete Young) but upon further reflection I’m choosing to focus this list on living authors, who would directly benefit from your kind attention to their works. Still, two in particular are especially interesting. Mikhail Bulgakov, the author of The Master and Margarita–the novel that launched the magical realism genre and is widely considered one of the greatest books of the 20th century was born in Kyiv. (How did I not know that? This is my favorite Russian-language author!) Also, Stanislaw Lem (of Solaris fame) was born in Lviv, which was part of Poland at the time but is part of Ukraine now.

Alex Shvartsman

I, too, am a member of this club, having been born in Odessa, Ukraine (back when it was still the USSR.) You could check out “Things We Leave Behind,” a semi-autobiographical story about emigrating from Ukraine to the USA at Daily Science Fiction, and/or preorder my upcoming humorous urban fantasy novel The Middling Affliction. While most of the action is based in Brooklyn, there are some scenes (minor spoiler alert!) that take place in Ukraine.

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Are there professionally-published Ukrainian SF/F authors whose work I missed? Please let me know via the magazine’s contact form, and I will update this post.