Serhiy Zhadan
UkraineAbout
Serhiy Zhadan is a Ukrainian poet, novelist, translator, musician, and civic activist, born in 1974 in Starobilsk, in eastern Ukraine. He studied Ukrainian-German philology and completed postgraduate research on Ukrainian avant-garde poet Mykhailo Semenko. Since the early 1990s, Zhadan has been a prominent figure in the cultural life of Kharkiv, the city where he has lived and worked for much of his adult life. His writing captures the experiences of post-Soviet Ukraine, particularly the lives of young people and marginalised communities navigating political upheaval, economic hardship, and social change. His acclaimed novels include Voroshilovgrad (published in English as The Orphanage is a different work; Voroshilovgrad has also appeared in English under its original title), Depeche Mode, Mesopotamia, and The Orphanage. His poetry collections include The Life of Maria, Templars, and Antenna. Known for his energetic language, dark humour, and vivid depictions of eastern Ukrainian life, Zhadan blends the personal with the political. His work has received numerous international honours, including the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature, the Brücke Berlin Prize, and the 2022 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. In 2025, he received Austria’s State Prize for European Literature. Alongside his literary career, Zhadan is the frontman of the bands Zhadan and the Dogs and Mannerheim Line. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has also been active in humanitarian volunteering and, in 2024, joined the Ukrainian military.
