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OLGA LIVSHIN
Welcome
I am a writer who helps others tell their stories. My family is from Odesa, Ukraine and Moscow, Russia, and I am from berries and tea and separation.
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I offer creative writing lessons for children over Zoom. All lessons are one-on-one, and emphasis is on helping the individual young person tap into their voice. We read and imitate international and diverse literature along with Anglo-American classics of children's literature.
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My poetry is published in Poetry, the Southern Review, and Ploughshares, and is forthcoming from AGNI. I have earned fellowships to Yetzirah Poetry Conference, the Porches Residency, and Prospect Street Writers House.
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I spearheaded the translation of Ukrainian poet Lyudmyla Khersonska's war diary in poems, Today Is a Different War, translated with Lev Fridman, Andrew Janco, and Maya Chhabra and published by Arrowsmith Press.
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My poetry collection A Life Replaced (Poets & Traitors, 2019) braids together poems on immigration in America with translations from Anna Akhmatova and our contemporary Vladimir Gandelsman, winner of Russia's highest award for poetry, the Moscow Reckoning. Many poems are responses to these two voices; some are stand-alone works. The foreword is by Ilya Kaminsky. You can read reviews in the Los Angeles Review of Books and Reading in Translation.
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And to stay in touch, please feel free to subscribe to my newsletter.
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Welcome, and enjoy your stay!
Upcoming Events
Beyond the Picket Sign: Writers' Tools to Create Social Change
Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Baltimore
Thursday, March 5, 2026
1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. ET
Room 321-322, Baltimore Convention Center, Level 300
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Invited Reader, Post-Soviet Writers for Ukraine
Offsite event during Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference, Baltimore, March 4-7, 2026
Date and time TBD
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Invited Reader, Da Vinci Art Alliance
Poetry reading with Harriet Levin Millan
6 PM, March 13, 2026
Da Vinci Art Alliance
704 Catharine St, Philadelphia
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Featured Reader, with Shamar Hill
Boston Yetzirah Chapter Literary Salon
2 PM, May 3, 2026
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Past Events
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Philadelphia Launch of On Shaky Ground by Ukrainian author V. Domontovych (Author), Oksana Rosenblum (Translator)
Moonstone Arts Center Reading Series
December 8, 2024 4pm
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Featured Reader
Arcadia University
September 30, 2025
6 PM ET
Arcadia University Landman Library
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Featured Reader with J.C. Todd and Craig Czury
Book Release of And If You Saw Me by Craig Czury
Moonstone Arts Center Reading Series
Fergie’s Pub, Philadelphia
November 23, 2025,
5 PM ET
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War. Poetry. Translation. A Reading and Discussion
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 2090B LCLB
September 20, 2024, at 7 PM​​
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To find out more, follow me on social media at @olgalivshin.