Tanja Maljartschuk

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Tanja Maljartschuk has written in both Ukrainian and German since 2014 – switching languages, by her own account, because it lets her step back from experience too difficult to approach directly in her native tongue. Her German-language story Frogs in the Sea (2018) won the 2018 Ingeborg Bachmann Prize, and in 2024 her essay collection tracing Ukraine's recent history received Germany's Jeanette Schocken Prize.

Her fiction returns often to memory and its erosion, liminal states between past and present, and women who refuse to let time turn them into monsters. Her novel Forgottenness (2016) interweaves a contemporary woman's personal crisis with the largely erased legacy of Ukrainian historian and political thinker Vyacheslav Lypynsky. Its German edition won the Usedomer Literaturpreis in 2022, and its 2024 English translation was read by American critics as a meditation on what it means to be Ukrainian. Her allegorical children's book MOX NOX (2018) imagines bat-like creatures resettling cities after humans mysteriously vanish.

Together with translator Claudia Dathe, Maljartschuk co-initiated the Ukrainische Bibliothek Ukrainische Bibliothek, a series bringing Ukrainian literary classics to German readers through the publisher Wallstein Verlag, and in 2025 presented its editions of Shevchenko and Lesia Ukrainka at the Frankfurt Book Fair alongside Yuri Andrukhovych. She curated Germany's Munich Literary Festival in 2022, and her earlier honours include the Joseph Conrad Literary Award (Poland/Ukraine, 2013), the Crystal Vilenica Award (Slovenia, 2013), and fellowships from Gaude Polonia (Poland) and the Junge Akademie der Künste (Berlin, 2015).

Bullaun Press

Tanja Maljartschuk: “Ukraine has always been a part of Europe, and will remain so” Tanja Maljartschuk: “Ukraine has always been a part of Europe, and will remain so”

By Natalya Korniyenko

In a conversation with the famous Ukrainian writer Tanja Maljartschuk, whose translation of the novel Forgottenness was recently published published in Ireland by Bullaun Press, we talk about why Ukraine failed to gain its statehood at the beginning of the 20th century, how Ukrainians have rethought their history in these 100 years and why now they will surely succeed.

The Dreaming Machine

History Goes On, Let’s Stop and Breathe – Kithamerini interviews Tanya Maliarchuk History Goes On, Let’s Stop and Breathe – Kithamerini interviews Tanya Maliarchuk

Greek language original interview published by Lucas Velidakis in Kithamerini on 16/11/2025. Translation from Italian by Pina Piccolo.

Craft

Tanja Maljartschuk: and not to get angry at the question: "What gives you faith?" Tanja Maljartschuk: and not to get angry at the question: "What gives you faith?"

By Ganna Uliura

The Kyiv Independent

Haunting Ukrainian novel explores time, trauma, and identity Haunting Ukrainian novel explores time, trauma, and identity

By Kate Tsurkan

Chytomo

Time, the evil genius, in ‘Forgottenness’ by Tanja Maljartschuk Time, the evil genius, in ‘Forgottenness’ by Tanja Maljartschuk

By Anastasia Herasymova

Generally regarded as one of the best Ukrainian literary works of the 2010s, this novel is worth reading both for getting familiar with and from the point of simply enjoying prose we value so much.