Ukrainian writer, playwright, and veteran whose work challenges simplified narratives about war and identity. She writes about people whose lives are often reduced to labels: soldiers, veterans, women affected by violence, queer people, and civilians living through war.
Drawing on her experience as a combat medic, social worker, and researcher, she explores how large political events and social systems shape individual lives. Her fiction and drama focus on the choices people make under pressure and the consequences of those choices for individuals and communities.
Kyiv, Ukraine
Born in Ukraine in 1987.
Alina Sarnatska is a playwright, writer, PhD in social work, PEN member and war veteran based in Ukraine.
Her work explores resilience, trauma, and social justice, with a particular focus on women affected by violence, and communities impacted by war.
Currently, she is the author of nine plays and two books. Her work has been produced and presented by Schauspiel Stuttgart (Germany), The Royal Dramatic Theatre (Sweden), the Kyiv National Academic Molodyy Theatre, the Lesya Ukrainka Academic Theatre, the Maria Zankovetska National Academic Ukrainian Drama Theatre, the Les Kurbas Lviv Academic Theatre, and the Theatre of Playwrights (Ukraine). Her work has been presented internationally through productions, staged readings, and literary events in the United States at Yale University, Flamboyan Theater (New York City), Hudson Theatre and Warriors for Peace Theatre (Los Angeles), Spooky Action Theater and Ukraine House (Washington, D.C.), and the Consulate General of Ukraine in San Francisco, as well as at Literaturhaus Stuttgart (Germany) and the Grotowski Institute (Warsaw, Poland).
She received two awards at the ATYPOWO Festival (Poland), was shortlisted for the Aurora Drama Award (Poland), and was awarded fellowships from Akademie Schloss Solitude (Germany) and a Rikstolvan (Sweden), the 2026 Resilient Futures Fellowship (Poland), INDEX-Ukraine, and the joint fellowship of PEN Ukraine and the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. She was also a VILNO Robert Bosch Foundation Fellow in 2024.
She is the co-founder and director of the Teplonosiї Charitable Foundation, a volunteer network providing support and care for wounded veterans in local communities. She also heads the Veterans Department of the international volunteer network Balakun.
Her recent projects include the book SKAM (Kyiv, 2026); the radio programs [In]Justice (Kyiv 98 FM, 2024-2026), Strict Reprimand, and Volunteers (Hromadske Radio, 2022–2024).