Key points:
- Yulia Ilyukha’s collection My Women has been included in the Financial Times’ summer selection in the translated fiction category.
- The English-language edition of My Women was translated by Hanna Leliv; the book was published by The Indigo Press (UK) and 128 Lit (USA).
- The Ukrainian edition was published by ‘Bilka’.
- The book explores the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine through the voices of women — mothers, wives, widows, daughters and female soldiers.
- Among her accolades are winning the 2024 BBC Book of the Year, being shortlisted for the 2025 EBRD Literature Prize, being longlisted for the 2024 Drahomán Prize, and winning the 128 LIT’s International Chapbook Prize in 2023.
- The Financial Times’ selection includes seven works of fiction and four non-fiction books; among the fiction titles, My Women is the only one that has already been published in Ukraine.
The collection of short stories My Women by Ukrainian writer Yulia Ilyukha has been included in the British publication Financial Times’s summer selection of the best books in the translated fiction category. This is one of the most notable international recognitions of Ukrainian prose written during a full-scale war.
The English-language edition, titled My Women, was translated by Hanna Leliv. In the UK, the book was published by The Indigo Press, and in the US by 128 Lit. The Ukrainian edition was published by Bilka.
The Financial Times describes My Women as a collection of short stories that, through women’s voices, depict the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The book’s protagonists are mothers, wives, widows, daughters, female soldiers and women who have endured evacuation and loss. Each story reveals a distinct account of the experience of war, and together they form a collective portrait of Ukrainian women from diverse walks of life.
The book has already won a number of international and Ukrainian awards. In 2024, it won the ‘BBC Book of the Year’ award, was shortlisted for the EBRD Literature Prize 2025 and longlisted for the Drahomán Prize 2024, and also won the 128 LIT’s International Chapbook Prize 2023.
Seven works of fiction and four non-fiction books made it onto the Financial Times’ summer selection. Among the fiction titles, My Women is the only book that has already been published in Ukraine.
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