Oleksandr Mykhed, who was the Faculty’s Ukranian virtual writer in residence during 2022-23, is giving a talk about his new book The Language of War. He will be in conversation with Colin Freeman, writer and The Telegraph journalist and former chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Telegraph.
In The Language of War, Oleksandr writes of his own experiences when his quiet suburban life was destroyed overnight as Russian forces invaded. And he brings together a host of other voices to talk about their experiences including a veteran, an artist, a journalist, a literature professor, a soldier and many more. It is a story of what happens when you wake up to the sound of helicopters and smell of gunpowder, when your house is hit by shells and when you spend your nights in a basement turned bomb shelter. It is also a story about the realisation that you must fight back even though you have never held a gun before.
Oleksandr lived in Kyiv until March 2022 and is now enlisted in the Ukrainian armed forces. The Language of War was inspired by his work during an online residency at the University of Oxford. It was published to great acclaim in Ukraine. The Financial Times has described the book as, ‘a vivid account of invasion and the struggle to find the words to describe a new reality: war’. Oleksandr is author of nine books, including the novel Astra, and is a member of PEN Ukraine.
University staff and students can access £5 tickets for the talk by entering the discount code MYKHEDFIVE when booking at the link above.
