Absolute Zero: An Evening with Ukrainian Writer Artem Chekh

Join the Ukrainian Studies Program and Razom for Ukraine for an evening with Ukrainian writer Artem Chekh.

The event will feature readings by Mr. Chekh from his landmark 2017 book Tochka Nul (Absolute Zero), a lyrical diary capturing his experiences as a soldier in the Donbas war. The book was translated into English by Olena Jennings and Oksana Lutsyshyna and will be published by Glagoslav in 2020. Ms. Jennings will read excerpts of the translation at the event. Maria Genkin will interpret for Mr. Chekh and Mark Andryczyk will moderate.

Artem Chekh was born in 1985 in the city of Cherkasy. He studied sociology, but never worked in the field. Instead, he has work experience as an actor with the Cherkasy Drama Theater, a security guard, a salesclerk, a promoter, a journalist, a copywriter, a maker of artistic models, and a senior marksman and gunner of armored personnel carriers in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Chekh was discharged from the military in 2016, and is the author of nine books of prose. His 2017 memoir Absolute Zero, a lyrical diary of his time at the front, is scheduled for publication in English in 2020. In 2019, Chekh received the prestigious Joseph Conrad Prize. His latest novel Kvartal D. has been shortlisted for this year’s BBC Book of the Year Prize.