Julia Cimafiejeva, Ostap Slyvynsky
Dictionaries of Solidarity: Writing in Dark Times
Poetry reading and talk with
Julia Cimafiejeva, Writer, Berlin/Minsk
Ostap Slyvynsky, Writer, Lviv;
Gesprächsleitung: Aleksandra Szczepan, Tetiana Portnova, Potsdam
Available also via Zoom (register here)
There is no freedom without solidarity: this was the motto of the great protest movement in Poland in the early 1980s. Today, solidarity once again represents hope for freedom in Europe: hope for a just peace, for political freedom, for freedom of thought. Amid war, polarization, social fragmentation, and the rise of autocratic and right-wing populist movements, calls for solidarity are growing louder again. In conversation with the poets Julia Cimafiejeva and Ostap Slyvynsky, we explore the potential of solidarity-based thought, engagement, and action, particularly with regard to current experiences in East-Central Europe. Focusing on writing and translating, we ask about the role of literature in forging solidarity and creating alliances in dark times.
Julia Cimafiejeva is a Belarusian writer and translator. She is the author of six poetry collections in Belarusian and the English-language documentary book Minsk Diary (2021). Her recent books in German are Der Angststein: Gedichte (2022) and Ich zerschneide die Geschichte: Lyrik und Collagen (2025). Cimafiejeva’s debut book Motherfield: Poems & Belarusian Protest Diary (2022) was long-listed for the American PEN Award for Poetry in Translation. She has translated books by Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, Paul Celan, Maja Lunde, and Stian Hole, and is the winner of the Carlos Sherman Translation Prize for her translations of poems by Stephen Crane.
Ostap Slyvynsky is a Ukrainian poet, translator, essayist, and scholar. He is the author of five books of poetry, as well as The Dictionary of War (2023), which is based on testimony from participants in and witnesses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For his poetry he has been awarded the Hubert Burda Prize (2009) and the Kovaliv Fund Prize (2013). Recently he edited an anthology of modern Ukrainian poetry titled Among the Sirens: New Poems of War (2023). Slyvynsky also initiated, and participated in, several human rights campaigns in Ukraine. From 2006 to 2007, he was the first program director of the International Literary Festival in Lviv. Since 2021, Slyvynsky has organized PEN Ukraine’s festival Propysy (The Writings).
A cooperation with the Slavic Studies Institute at the University of Potsdam.