Lyubko Deresh

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Lyubko Deresh made his literary debut at seventeen with the novel Cult (2001). His early novels, with their teenage protagonists and esoteric undercurrents, made him one of the most widely read Ukrainian writers of his generation. His recent fiction – Where the Wind Blows (2021) and Medusa's Gaze (2024), both shortlisted for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine – turns to war, memory, and the civilian experience of historical catastrophe. Medusa's Gaze is forthcoming in English from Academic Studies Press Academic Studies Press in December 2026. 

His books have appeared in thirteen languages and have inspired stage productions in Ukraine and abroad: in 2008, Worship of the Lizard (2002) was staged at the Deutsches Nationaltheater und Staatskapelle Weimar, an early instance of contemporary Ukrainian prose reaching European theatre audiences. Intent! (2006) was adapted into a short film in 2016, and a feature film based on Cult is currently in development. His own screenwriting credits include the short film Devastation and Kvity ekstazu (Flowers of Ecstasy, 2023), a television film exploring the mysticism of the Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda. His essays have appeared in The New York Times The New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Kafka (Berlin), Radar (Kraków). He is completing a doctoral dissertation on the phenomenology of the literary event.

Deresh is a two-time finalist of the BBC Ukraine Book of the Year Award, for Intent! and A Bit of Darkness (2007), which placed third in the competition. His earlier novels also received national recognition: Worship of the Lizard placed second in the Knyzhnyk-Review Book of the Year competition (2003), and Arche (2005) placed third in the Korrespondent Book of the Year competition (2006). The novel Devastation (2017) was shortlisted for the Joseph Conrad-Korzeniowski Literary Prize in 2017. The novels Where the Wind Blows and Medusa’s Gaze were shortlisted for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine. 

Lyubko Deresh's work spans literary and philosophical fiction, metaphysical prose, and essays. His early novels are coming-of-age stories steeped in ritual, altered states of consciousness, and the seductions of belief, a territory of both wonder and violence. In his mature fiction, written in the times of Russia's war against Ukraine, mythic and ritual undercurrents return in a darker register – turned toward trauma, memory, and what violence does to the human capacity to feel. 

Other translations include:

Armenia: Peacemaker Peacemaker (2018)

Bulgaria: Cult Cult (2023) 

Georgia: A Bit of Darkness (2019) 

Germany: Worship of the Lizard Worship of the Lizard (2006), Intent! Intent! (2008)  

Hungary: Cult (2022) 

Italy: Cult Cult (2007) 

Poland: Cult Cult (2005), Arche Arche (2006) 

Romania: Cult Cult (2020)