About this Event
What does it mean to write poetry on the front line of the bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War and reflective essays that deal with trauma yet also express a will to freedom and life itself? Join Artur Dron’ - poet, prize-winning essayist and veteran - to hear a reading of his poems of testimony collected in We Were Here (2023). Get a preview of his book of essays, Hemingway Knows Nothing (2025, English translation forthcoming 2026), which tops the bestseller lists in Ukraine and which won the nation’s top prize for essay writing.
Artur Dron’ is one of the most prominent voices amidst an extraordinary generation of Ukrainian warrior poets, the likes of which has not been seen since the First World War -what is it about poetry and literature that allows for such intense individual and collective expression of the human spirit in the face of an existential threat?
Learn about the process of translating this work with Hugh Roberts (University of Exeter), who leads a project team on Ukrainian wartime literature, working with translators including Yuliya Musakovska, herself a major poet, for We Were Here (Jantar, 2025), and Hanna Leliv for Hemingway Knows Nothing (Jantar, forthcoming 2026). He will also discuss the challenges, choices, and solutions involved in adapting powerful Ukrainian wartime literature for English readers. To embody the pan-European interest in the renaissance of poetry in wartime Ukraine, we will also showcase Nous étions là, translated by Nikol Dziub (Les Éditions Bleu et Jaune, 2025), read by Adélie Pojzman-Pontay of The Telegraph’s ‘Ukraine: The Latest’ podcast and YouTube channel.
The reading and discussion will be followed by a book signing of English, French and Ukrainian editions of We Were Here.
Come along if you’re interested in Russia’s war on Ukraine, literature or both. The event is suitable for adults and children 12+.
We gratefully acknowledge the support of the British Academy Talent Development Award (grant reference TDA25\250282) and the University of Exeter’s Defence, Security and Resilience Network.
Speakers
Artur Dron’ is a young poet and essayist, the author of the poetry collections Dormitory No.6 (2020) and We Were Here (2023), and a set of essays reflecting on his experience, Hemingway Knows Nothing (2025), which won the prestigious Yuri Shevelyov Prize and which tops the nation’s bestseller charts. His poetry has been translated into 10 languages, and his essays are forthcoming in English and 10 other languages in 2026. He signed up as an infantryman in the 125 th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defence Forces of Ukraine within days of the full-scale invasion. He participated in combat missions in the regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia. In autumn 2024, he was heavily wounded in action, underwent rehabilitation, and was demobilized from the army in summer 2025, all before he reached the age of conscription.
Hugh Roberts, Professor of French at the University of Exeter, has been facilitating translations of work by Ukrainian poet-soldiers since Yuliya Musakovska introduced him to it in summer 2023. He edited her translation of Artur Dron’s We Were Here, with his Exeter colleague and translation specialist, Prof. Helen Vassallo, the prize-winning British poet, Fiona Benson, and the Anglo-Ukrainian poet, Charlotte Shevchenko Knight. He is also editing Hanna Leliv’s English translation of Artur’s Hemingway Knows Nothing (Jantar, forthcoming 2026). He currently leads projects on Ukrainian poetry funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the British Academy, and the British Council.
Adélie Pojzman-Pontay is one of the cohosts of Ukraine: The Latest at the Telegraph, where she's been covering the war in Ukraine since 2023, with a particular focus on the human cost of war.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
French Institute of the United Kingdom, 17 Queensberry Place, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 11.55
