English PEN and PEN Ukraine are delighted to announce that journalist and writer Anna Romandash will participate in Stories of Resilience, a new research and writing project across Ukraine and the UK.
Romandash has begun the first phase of the project in Ukraine, collating the stories of people from different regions who use the written or spoken word as a form of resilience and cultural preservation, addressing the roles of art and culture in personal and collective acts of resilience and resistance. In July, she will undertake a month-long residency in London, where she will draw on her research to produce a text-based piece with support from a mentor. Her work will be published as a printed pamphlet and distributed in Ukraine and available in digital format internationally.
Anna Romandash said: ‘This project is bittersweet. I am happy to talk to resilient Ukrainians who, despite all odds, work toward preserving Ukrainian culture and carry on thanks to their passion and endless love for Ukraine. But I also realize that there are a lot of amazing Ukrainian authors I would never be able to talk to because Russia killed them. I feel guilty and immensely indebted to them, and I know I would never be able to repay that debt to them. I am angry for all the injustice done to Ukraine and its culture, and yet, I cannot lose hope and I keep on believing – and working – toward justice for Ukraine and its resilient and brave people.’
Stories of Resilience is organised by English PEN and PEN Ukraine, with the financial support of the UK/UA Creative Partnerships programme, designed by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
Anna Romandash is a multi-award-winning journalist and a writer from Ukraine. She is a contributor to Women of Ukraine: Reportages from the War and Beyond (2023) which tells stories of Ukrainian resilience, courage, and loss amid Russian invasion. Romandash writes on human rights all-things-Ukraine for a variety of international media. She has received awards from the Centre for Media Pluralism and Freedom, Internews, Hostwriter, and the European Institute of Mediterranean. Romandash was also named Media Freedom Ambassador of Ukraine for her human rights and media work.
English PEN is one of the world’s oldest human rights organisations, championing the freedom to write and read. We are the founding centre of PEN International, a worldwide writers’ association with 130 centres in more than 90 countries. With the support of our members – a community of readers, writers and activists – we protect freedom of expression whenever it is under attack, support writers facing persecution around the world, and celebrate contemporary international writing with literary prizes, grants, events, and our online magazine PEN Transmissions.
PEN Ukraine is a cultural and human rights NGO uniting Ukrainian intellectuals – writers, journalists, scholars, publishers, translators, human rights defenders, culture managers. With 160 members, it is a co-founder of the Vasyl Stus Prize, the Yuri Shevelov Prize, and the George Gongadze Prize. Since February 24, 2022, we have been working to support the Ukrainian literary community, inform foreign audiences about the impact of Russian aggression on Ukrainian culture, document the experiences of Ukrainians during wartime, and restore cultural life in Ukraine. After the full-fledged war started, besides Unbreakable Libraries, we launched such projects as Literary Volunteering Trips to liberated and frontline territories, Here-and-Now. Stories of Journalists at the War, Charity Intellectual Evenings, photo exhibition The War Is Not Over Yet dedicated to media workers who have been killed, wounded, taken captive or persecuted since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine.
The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. We do this through our work in arts and culture, education and the English language. We work with people in over 200 countries and territories and are on the ground in more than 100 countries.
The Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Its mission is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. The Institute facilitates international connections between people and institutions and creates opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.