About Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed

Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed is a Preceptor in Ukrainian at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures (Indiana University, 2022). She also holds a Ph.D. in American literature (Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2007). Her research interests include contested memory, with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. She is a review editor of H-Ukraine. Since 2016, she has been a host on the New Books Network (Ukrainian Studies, East European Studies, and Literary Studies channels).
Nataliya Shpylova-Saeed is a Preceptor in Ukrainian at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Harvard University. She has a Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures (Indiana University, 2022). She also holds a Ph.D. in American literature (Taras Shevchenko Institute of Literature, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2007). Her research interests include contested memory, with a focus on Ukraine and Russia. She is a review editor of H-Ukraine. Since 2016, she has been a host on the New Books Network (Ukrainian Studies, East European Studies, and Literary Studies channels).

NBN Episodes hosted by Nataliya:

Serhiy Bilenky, "Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine Between Empire and Nation, 1772-1914" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2023)

February 5, 2024

Laboratory of Modernity

Serhiy Bilenky

When the powers of Europe were at their prime, present-day Ukraine was divided between the Austrian and Russian empires, each imposing different polit…

Olena Stiazhkina, "Cecil the Lion Had to Die" (HURI, 2023)

December 14, 2023

Cecil the Lion Had to Die

Olena Stiazhkina

In 1986 Soviet Ukraine, two boys and two girls are welcomed into the world in a Donetsk maternity ward. Following a Soviet tradition of naming things …

Christopher Merrill, "On the Road to Lviv" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023)

October 7, 2023

On the Road to Lviv

Christopher Merrill

Prismatic and polysemous, On the Road to Lviv (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) invites us on an odyssey across Ukraine in the hour of war. "This chronicle/ To…

Anna Wylegała et al., "No Neighbors’ Lands in Postwar Europe: Vanishing Others" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023)

August 25, 2023

No Neighbors’ Lands in Postwar Europe

Anna Wylegala, Sabine Rutar, and Malgorzata Lukianow
Listen:

Anna Wylegala, Sabine Rutar, and Malgorzata Lukianow's edited volume No Neighbors’ Lands in Postwar Europe: Vanishing Others (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023…

Olena Palko and Manuel Férez Gil, "Ukraine's Many Faces: Land, People, and Culture Revisited" (Transcript Publishing, 2023)

August 11, 2023

Ukraine's Many Faces

Olena Palko and Manuel Férez Gil
Listen:

Russia's large-scale invasion on the 24th of February 2022 once again made Ukraine the focus of world media. Behind those headlines remain the complex…

Oksana Lutsysyna, "Ivan and Phoebe" (Deep Vellum, 2023)

July 11, 2023

Ivan and Phoebe

Oksana Lutsysyna
Listen:

Ivan and Phoebe (Deep Vellum, 2023) spotlights the uproarious generation that led the Ukrainian independence movement of 1990; from subjugation to rev…

Mateusz Świetlicki, "Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children's Historical Fiction: The Seeds of Memory" (Routledge, 2023)

July 7, 2023

Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children's Historical Fiction

Mateusz Świetlicki
Listen:

Mateusz Świetlicki's book Next-Generation Memory and Ukrainian Canadian Children's Historical Fiction: The Seeds of Memory (Routledge, 2023) is the fi…

Halyna Kruk, "A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023)

May 27, 2023

A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails

Halyna Kruk

"We act like children with our dead," Halyna Kruk writes as she struggles to come to terms with the horror unfolding around her: "confused, / as if no…

Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky, "In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023)

May 24, 2023

In the Hour of War

Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky

Ukraine may be the only country on earth that owes its existence, at least in part, to a poet. Ever since the appearance of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar …

Ostap Kin, "Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond" (HURI, 2022)

April 29, 2023

Babyn Yar

Research Center Coordinator Ostap Kin

In 2021, the world commemorates the 80th anniversary of the massacres of Jews at Babyn Yar. The present collection brings together for the first time …

Volodymyr Rafeyenko, "The Length of Days: An Urban Ballad" (HURI, 2023)

April 23, 2023

The Length of Days

Volodymyr Rafeyenko (trans. Sibelan Forrester)

The Length of Days: An Urban Ballad (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2023) is set mostly in the composite Donbas city of Z--an uncanny foretelli…

Marianna Kiyanovska, "The Voices of Babyn Yar" (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, 2022)

April 7, 2023

The Voices of Babyn Yar

Marianna Kiyanovska

Today I talked to the translators of Marianna Kiyanovska's The Voices of Babyn Yar (HURI, 2022), Max Rosochinsky and Oksana Maksymchuk. With this co…

Kieron Pim, "Endless Flight:  The Life of Joseph Roth" (Granta Books, 2022)

March 26, 2023

Endless Flight

Kieron Pim

Endless Flight: The Life of Joseph Roth (Granta Books, 2022) travels with Roth from his childhood in the town of Brody on the eastern edge of the Aus…

Svetlana Lavochkina, "Dam Duchess" (Whiskey Tit, 2018)

March 23, 2023

Dam Duchess

Svetlana Lavochkina

Svetlana Lavochkina's book Dam Duchess (Whiskey Tit, 2018) invites readers to take a surreal journey into the past: the construction of Dnipro Dam, th…

Lyudmyla Khersonska, "Today is a Different War" (Arrowsmith Press, 2023)

February 17, 2023

Today is a Different War

Lyudmyla Khersonska

Today is a Different War (Arrowsmith Press, 2023) is Lyudmyla Khersonska's striking portrayal of life from inside war-torn Ukraine. Masterfully transl…

Svetlana Lavochkina, "Carbon: Song of Crafts" (Lost Horse Press, 2020)

December 31, 2022

Carbon

Svetlana Lavochkina

Donetsk, the black gem of Ukraine―Eden and Sodom in one, a stew steaming with coal fever, Manifest Destiny of Europe's east: Svetlana Lavochkina sends…

Emily Channell-Justice, "Without the State: Self-Organization and Political Activism in Ukraine" (U Toronto Press, 2022)

December 9, 2022

Without the State

Emily Channell-Justice

Without the State: Self-Organization and Political Activism in Ukraine (U Toronto Press, 2022) explores the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests - a wave of de…

Olena Braichenko et al., "Ukraine: Food and History" (O. Braichenko, 2020)

November 30, 2022

Ukraine, Food and History

Olena Braichenko, Maryna Hrymych, Ihor Lylo, and Vitaly Reznichenko

Ukraine: Food and History (O. Braichenko, 2020) tells about the past and present of Ukrainian cuisine. It includes recipes of dishes that everyone can…

Olga Melnyk, "Ship Life: Seven Months of Voluntary Slavery" (2022)

September 23, 2022

Ship Life

Olga Melnyk

Ship Life: Seven Months of Voluntary Slavery (2022) is written in the form of a diary of a Ukrainian girl who worked as a bar server on an American cr…

Olena Palko and Constantin Ardeleanu, "Making Ukraine: Negotiating, Contesting, and Drawing the Borders in the Twentieth Century" (McGill-Queen's UP, 2022)

July 26, 2022

Making Ukraine

Olena Palko and Constantin Ardeleanu

Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the ongoing war in eastern Ukraine have brought scholarly and public attention to Ukraine's borders.…

Volodymyr Rafeyenko, "Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love" (HURI, 2022)

July 21, 2022

Mondegreen

Volodymyr Rafeyenko

Today I talked to Mark Andryczyk, translator of Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s novel Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institu…

Sergei Zhuk, "KGB Operations Against the USA and Canada in Soviet Ukraine 1953-1991" (Routledge, 2022)

July 18, 2022

KGB Operations Against the USA and Canada in Soviet Ukraine 1953-1991

Sergei Zhuk

Oriented for a general reading audience, Sergei Zhuk's book KGB Operations Against the USA and Canada in Soviet Ukraine 1953-1991 (Routledge, 2022) gi…

Olga Bertelsen, "In the Labyrinth of the KGB: Ukraine's Intelligentsia in the 1960s-1970s" (Lexington Books, 2022)

June 6, 2022

In the Labyrinth of the KGB

Olga Bertelsen

Olga Bertelsen's In the Labyrinth of the KGB: Ukraine's Intelligentsia in the 1960s-1970s (Lexington Books, 2022) focuses on the generation of the six…

Victoria A. Malko, "The Ukrainian Intelligentsia and Genocide: The Struggle for History, Language, and Culture in the 1920s and 1930s" (Lexington Books, 2021)

May 13, 2022

The Ukrainian Intelligentsia and Genocide

Victoria A. Malko

Victoria A. Malko's book The Ukrainian Intelligentsia and Genocide: The Struggle for History, Language, and Culture in the 1920s and 1930s (Lexington …