This year, INDEX in partnership with PEN Ukraine, the New York Literary Festival, Truth Hounds, and Lviv BookForum, will welcome the first laureates of the Victoria Amelina Fellowship.
In total, we received 50 applications from Ukrainian and foreign creative nonfiction writers who are interested in exploring the roots and consequences of Russia's war against Ukraine.
This year, the Ukrainian jury selected Kateryna Yakovlenko. The author will be working on her documentary project in Lviv, Victoria Amelina's hometown, in April-June.
Kateryna Yakovlenko is a Ukrainian author, visual culture researcher, curator, and editor-in-chief of the UPB: Suspilne Culture. Her achievements include: editing the book Why There Are Great Women Artists in Ukrainian Art, as well as several essays in publications such as e-flux, London Ukrainian Review, Institute of Networks Culture, The Ecologist, and others.
Runners-up: Valeriy Puzik, Lena Lyagushonkova, Hryhoriy Pyrlik.
In July-September, we will host Eva Peek, a Dutch writer and journalist for the foreign desk of the leading Dutch daily newspaper NRC Handelsblad. Eva Peek is the author of Death Smells Like Cotton Candy - on war, feminism, and women in Ukraine in a special issue of Vrij Nederland and co-author of the book These People Have Their God on Earth.
Runners-up: Lily Hyde and Lara Marlowe.
Reflecting Victoria Amelina’s international outlook, INDEX will host a joint event for the Ukrainian and international Fellows at the end of September 2025 in Lviv.
“The cross-cultural dimension of this fellowship for creative nonfiction writers reflects Victoria Amelina’s internationalist outlook. We hope to facilitate creative exchange between authors from Ukraine and abroad whose documentary work will help us capture Ukrainian wartime experiences,” emphasises Sasha Dovzhyk, jury member and Head of INDEX.
Learn more about the Victoria Amelina Fellowship.
