Yaryna Chornohuz Born in Kyiv, Ukraine, Yaryna Chornohuz is a writer, a poet, and a sergeant in the Ukrainian Marine Corps. She first volunteered for Ukraine's defense effort in 2019 as a combat medic. She later joined the Marines and retrained as a drone pilot. As a service member, she has been awarded the medals For Saving a Life, For Military Service to Ukraine, and the Badge of Honor of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. Chornohuz is the author of three poetry collections – How the War Circle Bends (2020), [dasein: defense of presence] (2023), and Nobody’s Saffron (2025). Her first nonfiction book, documenting six years of her experience as a female combatant in Russia's war against Ukraine, is forthcoming in Ukrainian. She was awarded Ukraine's highest literary distinction, the Taras Shevchenko National Prize (2024), for [dasein: defense of presence], as well as the UN Women in Arts Award (2024). Her poetry has been translated into English, French, German, Polish, and other languages. She is a member of PEN Ukraine.
Amelia Glaser is a Professor of Literature at UCSD, and a translator from Ukrainian, Yiddish, and Russian. She is the author of Jews and Ukrainians in Russia’s Literary Borderlands (2012) and Songs in Dark Times: Yiddish Poetry of Struggle from Scottsboro to Palestine (2020). Her translations and co-translations from Ukrainian include books by Halyna Kruk, Iya Kiva, and Yaryna Chornohuz. Her translations of Chornohuz's [dasein] and Nobody’s Saffron have appeared, respectively, with Jantar (2025) and Arrowsmith (2026).
Admission/Cost: FREE
Location:
Seuss Room
UCSD Geisel Library
9701 Hopkins Drive
La Jolla, CA
Wednesday, November 4 - 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
For more information, please visit: UCSD
