Translation and Dystopia with Artem Chapeye and Daisy Gibbons

In this episode we spoke to the prominent Ukrainian writer and soldier Artem Chapeye and translator Daisy Gibbons. Our wide-ranging discussion covered what it means to write dystopian novels in Ukraine today; how to find the balance between the particular and the universal when writing about Ukraine and why Ukrainian experiences should be seen as part of world literature; what it means to be a writer-soldier; and the challenges of translating various genres and wartime experiences into English. Our discussion focused mainly on Artem's brilliant dystopian novel The Weathering.

Books discussed:

• Artem Chapeye, The Weathering, transl. Daisy Gibbons (Seven Stories Press, 2026)

• Artem Chapeye, The Ukraine, transl. Zenia Tompkins (Seven Stories, 2024)

• Artem Chapeye, Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns (Seven Stories Press, 2026)

• Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi, Fata Morgana (1904/1910)

• Sofia Andrukhovych, Amadoka (Old Lion Publishing, 2020; forthcoming with Simon and Schuster 2027)

Guests’ recommendations:

• Artur Dron, Hemingway Knows Nothing, transl. by Hanna Leliv (Jantar, 2026)

• Ivan Bahrianyi, Sad Hetsymans’kyi (The Garden of Gethsemane, 1950 - not yet available in English)