The story of refugees is one of survival, transformation, and triumph. Max Rosochinsky and Oksana Maksymchuk fled Ukraine right before the outbreak of the war. Hassan Al Nawwab is an award-winning Iraqi poet who came to Australia to escape Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime. They speak with Natalie D-Napoleon to share the human experience of war and conflict, offering a remarkable window into this global crisis. 

Oksana Maksymchuk is a bilingual Ukranian-American poet, scholar, and literary translator. She is the author of the award-winning Ukrainian poetry collections Xenia and Lovy, while her English poems appeared in AGNI, Cincinatti Review, The Irish Times, Poetry Review, and other journals. Alongside Max Rosochinsky, she co-edited Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine and co-translated Apricots of Donbas by Lyuba Yakimchuk and The Voices of Babyn Yar by Marianna Kiyanovska.

Max Rosochinsky is a poet, translator, and scholar from Simferopol, Crimea. His translations were featured in Modern Poetry in Translation, Words Without Borders, Poetry International, and others. His translation of Lyuba Yakimchuk's Prayer was performed at the 2022 Grammy Awards Ceremony by the author. Max's poetry manuscript had been nominated for the PEN International New Voices Award, and his translations were nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He also co-edited Words for War: New Poems from Ukraine.

Hassan Al Nawwab was born in Iraq in 1960 and came to Australia in 2003 with his wife and children. He is a poet and journalist who has published three volumes of poetry and two plays in Arabic, and has received numerous awards for his poems. Poems That Do Not Sleep is Hassan’s first collection in English.

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Doors: 3:55 pm
Start: 4:00 pm
Show Duration: 45 min
Entrance: Main Entrance located on William St.
Age Suitability: 18+
Content Warning: N/A
Accessibility: Please contact [email protected] for any accessibility enquiries.