Artem Chapeye

A Million Stories is an umbrella name for an ongoing project to document Ukraine since the Russian full-scale invasion started, in both journalistic and literary forms. The A Million Stories project began life as a novel draft, then branched out into a non-fiction book called Ordinary People Don’t Carry Machine Guns, which has been translated into English and French, with German and Dutch translations forthcoming. 

Artem Chapeye has also been writing for world media, including The New Yorker, Al-Jazeera, Die Zeit, Le Monde, La Croix, and Berlingske. He is currently working on a short novel once again, preliminarily titled T-Happiness.

His position and method include participant observation:
* as a member of the armed forces for four years and counting;
* as a member of a family previously separated by war.
Non-participant methods:
* recording interviews;
* live discussions;
* using creativity as a professional writer of both creative non-fiction and fiction.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine disrupted millions of lives in different ways. Each story is unique. At the same time, there are many stories which are shared by millions. According to UN estimates, half of all Ukrainian children have been displaced. Millions of people, mostly women, elderly, and minors have become refugees. Others are internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands have joined the army, and thousands more of both soldiers and civilians have died or were mutilated. There are also some who either collaborate with the invaders or support the invasion, including relatives of those who fight or have become victims of the aggression. Some stories of people who help refugees, and even of some of the aggressors may also be included. Trying to fathom the situation in some form, most likely as a novel or a fable, is an ambitious and ambiguous project which, plainly speaking, might take years and require some distance; yet, it has to be started when the memories are fresh and details are here to see.