Bakhmut

It’s a story about the anti-aircraft gunner who has just shot down a Russian fighter jet, father and sons fighting side by side, and a member of Wagner who cherishes Nabokov. It’s a journey to places where dogs feast on the dead, where you are petrified by fear and desolation but also stunned with courage, resilience, and even love. There, you see everything with a clarity as sharp as that from new spectacles. This vividness begs the question of whether there is room for nuance. Or is the pursuit of nuance merely the privilege of those who don’t fight for their very life and existence here and now? But also whether the survivors are obliged to pursue this nuance. 

In his stories, the author opts for the fixation method, «photographing» with the text. The word «fixation» will be used in different meanings throughout the text.

Bio

Myroslav Laiuk was born on 31 July 1990 in the Carpathians and now resides in Kyiv, Ukraine. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy and literature and is a lecturer at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. As a war documentarian, he works on a frontline and in de-occupied territories. His texts and essays from Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions have been published in Ukrainian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and US media such as Gazeta Wyborcza, Eurozine, LitHub, Reporters, and Los Angeles Review of Books. His poems and prose in English translations have appeared in The Dial, The New Statesman, Agenda, Common Knowledge, and Poetry International. Myroslav is the author of three novels and three poetry books, with his works translated and published in Poland, Slovakia, Lithuania, and Belarus. In 2018, the KyivPost media recognized Laiuk in its «Top 30 Under 30» ranking as one of the most innovative young Ukrainians.