In Memoriam: Victoria Amelina

Last weekend, we received the horrifying news that one of our international guests in 2016, Victoria Amelina, lost her life in the Russian attack on a pizzeria in Kramatorsk. We are deeply shocked by this news. We remember her as a vibrant presence at the Read My World festival in 2016, which focused on authors from Ukraine and Poland at the time. She engaged in conversations with students from various Amsterdam high schools, who were invited to write new work based on her debut novel. She also participated in a panel on Feminist Futures.

Since the beginning of the war, Victoria dedicated herself to documenting Russian war crimes, which sidelined her literary work. She spoke out against the war and the destruction of Ukrainian culture on numerous occasions.

Our thoughts are with her family, friends, and fellow fighters.