Ukraine in World Poetry Slam Championship for first time

Ukraine participated for the first time in the 2025 World Poetry Slam Championship, represented by poet and veteran Olena Herasymiuk (“Hera”). The poet shared the news on her Facebook page.

Herasymiuk performed in the first round of the competition and later participated non-competitively in the semifinal. There she delivered the poem “In Memory of Mariupol,” dedicated to fallen readers. In total, she presented four texts: two story-poems, one story-documentary, and one documentary.

“There were so many reactions and hugs after my performance!” wrote Herasymiuk in her travel notes. “The pain of Ukrainians truly resonated with them, as each audience member carried a similar mark of darkness. Each of them was also a living witness to crimes committed by humans against humans. And that made our dialogue even heavier.”

In the first round, she took part in a group with Spanish- and English-speaking poets. Herasymiuk received high scores from the judges: 9.4, 9.4, 9.9, 9.7, and 10 for her first poem “The Horses,” and 9.8, 9.8, 9.8, 9.9, and 9.9 for her second, “The Shamaness.” Due to the technical scoring system, her total of 97.6 points did not qualify her for the official semifinal — although, as the poet noted, her result was higher than that of some semifinalists.

After an appeal submitted by the OVO Literary Agency — which helped organize the trip to Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, where the 2025 championship was held — the jury allowed Herasymiuk to perform in the semifinal non-competitively.

“I did not come here to compete,” she said. “I came to bear witness through words to our shared pain, to speak about and honor my fallen friends, my deceased readers, and the unjust suffering of my homeland. Because this is my sincere grief, my personal sorrow, which I want to shout about to the entire world. And I was given that chance.”

While she was performing the poem “Air Raid Alarm,” a Russian missile strike was underway in Ukraine, including in the capital.

“I have an interesting story about ‘Air Raid Alarm,’” she wrote. “This is the second time I’ve performed it on an international stage — and for the second time, at that exact moment, the Russians shelled my neighborhood.

“Perhaps it’s the ‘best’ trump card they could’ve handed me. Because when people ask me about the war — which they always do after this poem — I simply show them the air raid map and where I live. Every time, for the second time now. As if it’s a sign. But no — it’s not a sign. And no, I won’t stop telling the world about the war.”

Olena Herasymiuk is a Ukrainian poet, writer, and author of the books “Deafness,” “The Execution Calendar,” and “Prison Song.” She is the recipient of the second prize in the Smoloskyp Literary Competition. She also served as a paramedic with the volunteer Hospitallers medical battalion, working in a hospital in Avdiivka and on the front lines near Pisky and Vodiane. She was awarded the “For a Life Saved” medal and is a co-founder of “The Unwritten,” a project about writers and cultural figures killed in the war.

RELATED: Olena Herasymyuk takes award at the European Championships of Slam Poetry

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn