This event, co-sponsored by Writers in Exile, is partly to celebrate the new Ukrainian Centre of PEN International, located in Kiev, Ukraine. The event is also a tribute to Ukrainian Literature. All featured writers whose works are read were born in Ukraine, with the exception of two; all are Ukrainian exiles living in the U.S. Works of Ukranian writers who passed away as the result of the regime they lived under are also presented, like Vasyl Stus. Larissa Lorette reads an excerpt of Mykola Rudenko's poem "The Cross" in English, followed by a reading of the work by Rudenko. "Exit to Doom" is read by its author—Dr. Ostap Tarnawsky—in Ukrainian, followed by an English reading by Lorette. In English a selection of poems from both Vasyl Stus and Vasyl Symonenko are presented.
