Ukrainian dissident poet Vasyl Stus’s bilingual “Vortex: Selected Poems” to be published in the U.S.

A bilingual collection of selected poetry by Ukrainian poet, critic, translator, and dissident Vasyl Stus will be published in the United States by Lost Horse Press in fall 2026. “Vortex: Selected Poems” will present the original Ukrainian texts alongside English translations by Ukrainian literature scholar Bohdan Tokarsky and poet Nina Murray. Poet Ilya Kaminsky wrote the afterword.

The 260-page volume will cost 24 U.S. dollars and is available for preorder through Asterism Books. Lost Horse Press describes it as the most comprehensive collection of Stus’s poetry available in English to date.

According to the publisher, the collection presents Stus as a poet of “psychological intensity and philosophical depth,” whose work moves between historical extremity and the human condition with a distinctive ethical force.

The book spans more than a decade of Stus’s early writing, from his earliest poems to the period leading up to his arrest by the KGB, the Soviet Union’s state security agency, in 1972. Lost Horse Press had previously announced the project among its 2026 Ukrainian titles.

The publisher has also shared Tokarsky and Murray’s translation of Stus’s poem “Meni zoria siiala nyni vrantsi” (“A Star Shone for Me This Morning”). It was the first poem Stus wrote while being held in a Kyiv KGB pretrial detention cell following his Jan. 12, 1972 arrest.

The forthcoming U.S. edition follows another major international publication of Stus’s work. In February 2026, French publisher Noir sur Blanc announced “Palimpsestes. Poésie et lettres du Goulag” (“Palimpsests. Poetry and Letters from the Gulag”). The volume brings together Stus’s poetry, selected letters, and diary material.

Stus’s work has also continued to circulate beyond books. As reported earlier, four tracks connected to his poetry and legacy appear in “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl,” including DakhTrio’s setting of “There Grows the Wall Between the World and Soul.”

Stus was first arrested in January 1972 and later sentenced to five years in prison and three years of exile for “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.” After returning to Kyiv in 1979, he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group. He was arrested again in 1980 and sentenced to 10 years of forced labor and five years of exile as a “particularly dangerous repeat offender.” He died in the Perm-36 prison camp on Sept. 4, 1985.

The publication comes during a year of renewed attention to Stus’s literary legacy. In April 2026, the first volume of a new complete edition of his works was published in Ukraine. On Sept. 4, 2026, the National Bank of Ukraine also introduced a new 2,000-hryvnia (about 45 U.S. dollars) banknote featuring his portrait.

Main image: Lost Horse Press