Volodymyr Arenev

Born October 1, 1978 in Kyiv. He graduated from the Institute of Journalism (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv).

The author of several dozen books for adults, young adults and children. His works were translated into Chinese, English, Estonian, French, German, Lithuanian, and Polish. The books Soulhold and The Dragonbone Powder were included in the list of literature recommended by the Ministry of Education of Ukraine for reading at school.

A number of works have received literary awards, among them "BBC: Book of the Year" (Sapienses), LitAkcent special award (The Enchanted Sword). "Barabooka: The Best Book for Teenagers" (The Child of the Cynocephali, Treasury of Stories), Mykhailo Kotsyubynsky prize (The Child of the Cynocephali). In 2022, the novel The Enchanted Sword was the finalist of the Shevchenko National Prize.

In 2014, at the all-European SF&F convention "Eurocon" in Dublin (Ireland), V. Arenev received the award as the best author of SF&F for young adults.

As a screenwriter, Volodymyr has several projects, among others:

- Serhiy Proskurnia’s documentary Taras Shevchenko. IDentification;

- several episodes of The Doctor on Duty TV series;

- the first season of the 5baksiv.net web-series;

- animated educational series The Journey-Book. Ukraine (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHq5vXBXgKpU0_Nxl8pDKyw – episodes about Mykola Hohol, Chornobyl, Zaporizhian Sich, Hryhorii Skovoroda; the entire season about "Kyivan Rus").

Since 2004, V. Arenev has been actively attending international SF&F literary festivals, promoting Ukrainian SF&F abroad and foreign (particularly, Polish) SF&F in Ukraine. He was among the organizers of several literary SF&F festivals, including two pan-European Eurocon conventions held in Kyiv (2006, 2013). He was also the curator of the thematic block of SF&F at the "Publishers' Forum/Bookforum" (Lviv).

Together with Olena Hlushchenko, he is the author of the idea and one of the participants of the video project "Ukraine reads Lema" (2016, implemented by the Literra Creative Association with the support of the Polish Institute in Kyiv).

From the spring of 2022, V. Arenev records a weekly author's podcast for Polish Radio for Ukraine.

He works as a consultant/compiler of foreign SF&F book series for various Ukrainian publishers, such as "Green Dog" ("Foreign Legion" series), "Zhupansky Publishing House" ("Amalgam" series), "ASSA", and others. He compiled and wrote annotations to the first Ukrainian edition of Stanislav Lem's collected works ("Lem's Pentateuch" series for "Bohdan Textbook" publishing house).

He edited a number of anthology collections, in particular, the first retrospective anthology of the Ukrainian SF&F stories "The Language of Babylon" (published in Polish in 2022, an expanded edition in Ukrainian is planned for publication in 2023).