lit ground + Ukrainian Authors
Olha Fokaf
Olha Fokaf is a medical professional and public policy specialist. After completing her master’s degree in London, she has spent the past three years working as a consultant for the World Bank Representation in Ukraine within the Health, Nutrition and Population practice. Olha is the author of the thematic podcasts Section. About Doctors at the Turn of the Century and Just Asking, as well as articles for Atlantic Council, Ukrainska Pravda, Local History, Kunsht, and NV.
Before the full-scale invasion, she was involved in establishing a bone marrow transplantation unit at a children’s hospital in Lviv. As a researcher, Olha advises both Ukrainian and international think tanks. She advocates for Ukraine abroad and has extensive experience in interviewing and documenting in wartime conditions. In collaboration with The Wall Street Journal’s London bureau, she covered the defense and occupation of Mariupol, the theft of Ukrainian grain, and the onset of attacks on Ukraine’s energy system.
In 2024, Olha became a grantee of the Documenting Ukraine project by the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM) in Vienna.
Follow:
Anna Hala
Anna Hala has lived her whole life in Odesa and fully identifies herself with this city. She has promised to stay here through both hard and happy times. She loves noticing interesting details and drawing other people’s attention to them. A publisher by education and a designer by vocation, Anna is an author whose voice expresses itself through writing and music. She went from working in journalism to running her own postcard business — a project she had to suspend because of the full-scale invasion.Like many Ukrainians, Anna has experienced burnout and a personal crisis.For her, communication and handicrafts are the best forms of rest. Her favorite fields of exploration are human talents, the limitless capabilities of the brain, and the body’s ability to regenerate.Anna considers companionship to be her greatest treasure: “Strong and sincere relationships are the foundation that allows my personality to keep growing and unfolding,” she says.
Follow:
Kira Kos
Kira Kos was born in Avdiivka, Donetsk region. She established La Boussole esthetic magazine about firstly traveling around Ukraine, later about mindful and researching yourself in 2014. Kira has written articles and conducted interviews for the magazine. In 2021, she wrote her first book for her daughter Look Up and founded her own publishing house. After beginning a full-escalated russian war against Ukraine, Kira started to collect women's stories about their experience living during the war.
Follow:
Oksana Lemishka
A Cambridge-educated sociologist (MPhil), Oksana is an independent media and culture consultant (UN agencies, EU and USAID projects, Ministries of Ukraine, “Sensing Living Systems” at the Angewandte University in Vienna, Austria, etc) and a theater dramaturg (Münchner Kammerspiele, Germany; Lviv Zankovetska Drama Theatre, Ukraine). Her main areas of interest are the healing potential of arts and cultures. Born and raised in Ukraine, Oksana moved to Vienna at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, finding her safe home here. Impressed by the city and having accumulated layers of professional knowledge about different communities, she writes a book.
Follow:
Inna Savka
Inna Savka was born in Bukovyna and has lived in Italy since 2017 with her husband and two sons. She holds a master’s degree in journalism from Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University. During her studies, she wrote for print media, worked in radio, and participated in academic conferences. In 2006, she compiled her first collection of poems, and in 2020 her dystopian novel Marginal reached the finals of the “Koronatsiya Slova” literary competition. The following year, it received the “International Recognition of Italy” award. Inna is currently working on the sequel to Marginal and developing new literary projects.
Olha Shevchuk-Kliuzheva
Olha Shevchuk-Kliuzheva is a researcher and PhD in Philology with a specialized focus on state language policy, language management in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and the role of the Ukrainian language within Europe’s linguistically diverse landscape. Her academic interests include language contact phenomena, code-mixing (surzhyk), and the development of children’s speech in multilingual environments. Olha’s work explores how language policies can adapt to contemporary sociolinguistic realities, especially in regions with high linguistic diversity.Currently, Olha is furthering her expertise through postdoctoral studies at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University. Her dissertation centers on children’s speech development in multilingual environments, offering insights into how young learners acquire and navigate language amidst diverse linguistic settings.
Her career spans impactful roles across public, academic, and advocacy sectors. From 2020 to 2022, she served on the National Commission for State Language Standards, influencing policy development and the standardization of the Ukrainian language. She collaborated with the Institute of Slavic Studies at the Polish Academy of Sciences, contributing to comparative linguistic studies that support cross-border language policy and advocacy. As the former Head of PR at the Ukrainian Book Institute, she promoted Ukrainian cultural diplomacy and literature. In her current role as Head of the Sector for Coordination of Advocacy Projects at the Alliance of Ukrainian Civil Society Organizations, Olha leads initiatives in advocacy, knowledge-sharing, and policy development to address Ukraine’s humanitarian and sociolinguistic needs.
Olha has made significant contributions to national projects and has been a persistent advocate for the rights of Ukrainian children in forced migration, promoting access to education in their heritage language. As a member of the Program Board of the Migrant Education Center at Krakow University, she supports initiatives that foster linguistic and cultural integration for migrant children.
Follow:
Iryna Vyhovska
Iryna Vyhovska is a Ukrainian writer, copywriter, and editor with more than 10 years of experience working with texts. She has collaborated with Ukrainian brands and media such as Silpo, Kurazh, Cosmopolitan Ukraine, The Village Ukraine, UAnimals, Reima, Only Good Jewels, and Bazilik Media. She is the author of the intensive course “How to Write Texts for Brands.”Her debut book, “SUGAR ON TOP”, was self-published. She is the co-author of “Ration: How Food Affects Us, and How We Affect It” and co-founder of the publishing house Who Is It? She also serves as Editor-in-Chief at the publishing bureau punkt publishing. She is a mother of two children.
Follow: