When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Victoria Amelina was busy writing a novel, taking part in the country’s literary scene, and parenting her son. Against the backdrop of senseless violence, she suddenly took on a new role: a war crimes researcher and the chronicler of extraordinary women like herself who joined the resistance.
The resulting book, Looking at Women Looking at War, has been called an instant classic, offering an incredible account of the ravages of war and the cost of resistance. The book was published posthumously after Amelina was killed in 2023, when a Russian cruise missile hit the restaurant she was in. Joining us today to speak about Amelina and her book, is Joanna Kakissis, a fellow journalist who worked with the late writer’s friends and husband to finish the book after her death.
Joanna Kakissis leads NPR's bureau in Kyiv, coverage of Ukraine and Russia's war on the country.
Since the Kyiv bureau officially opened in January 2023, she has documented the war through Ukraine's people: The citizen-spies who helped liberate their city from occupation; the talented young novelist killed in a missile strike; the small-town mayor trying to deliver aid to his besieged city; the second-graders attending classes underground in a besieged city; the ninety-year-old 'mermaid' swimming in a mine-filled sea; the suburban moms who formed a volunteer air-defense unit.
Kakissis started working with NPR in 2011 from Athens, Greece as a freelancer, traveling throughout Europe for the network. Her reporting focused on the forces straining European unity — migration, nationalism and the rise of illiberalism. She led coverage of the eurozone debt crisis and the mass migration of mostly Syrian refugees to Europe. She's reported extensively in central and eastern Europe and also filled in at NPR bureaus in Berlin, Istanbul, Jerusalem, London, Paris and Rome.
Before joining NPR's staff in 2022, she was a contributor to the award-winning audio documentary program This American Life and also wrote for The New York Times, TIME, The New Yorker online and The Financial Times Magazine, among others. In 2021, she taught a journalism seminar on nationalism and migration as a visiting professor at Princeton University.
Kakissis was born in Greece, grew up in North and South Dakota, and spent her early years in journalism at The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina.
