#  Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns: Book Talk with Artem Chapeye 

 



    ![Book Cover](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/styles/hwp_5_4__480x385/public/2026-03/2026.04%20TCUP%20Reads%20Chapeye-11-1920x1536-event-thumbnail-v2.png?itok=0lXdCMTL) 

 



 

####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **April 10, 2026** 

 10:00AM - 11:30AM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **ONLINE**  



 

 [ REGISTER FOR THE BOOK CLUB HERE arrow\_circle\_right ](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/news/2026/03/tcup-book-club-reads-chapeye) 

 



 

### A book talk and discussion with Artem Chapeye, author of *Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns* (published [in Ukrainian](https://www.yakaboo.ua/ua/ne-narodzheni-dlja-vijni-3392231.html) as *Не народжені для війни*).

##### Part of the TCUP Book Club

This is a private event for book club members only. For more information, please [register for the book club](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/news/2026/03/tcup-book-club-reads-chapeye).

*This event is organized by the* [*Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program*](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/temerty-contemporary-ukraine-program) *(TCUP) at HURI, and co-sponsored by the Havighurst Center for East European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at Miami University, as part of the TCUP Book Club online event series.*

## About the Book

In *Ordinary People Don't Carry Machine Guns,* Artem Chapeye reveals his war, intimate and senseless, withholding nothing about his motivations, his nightmares, his new relationship with the world. Here, one man, a pacifist turned fighter, a story writer turned soldier, considers the reasons for and reactions to war on a very personal level.   
  
Chapeye investigates his role in the Ukrainian people’s defense against the Russian army and his responsibilities as a father, a writer, a soldier, and a man of conviction. An avowed pacifist until 2022, Chapeye joined the Ukrainian army in the first days of the invasion. He tries to understand the large-scale decision-making that has a defining impact on both individual citizens and society at large: many of his fellow soldiers never considered enlisting before finding themselves at war; others fled the country. He wonders what his young children at home are doing and what they’re feeling.

## About the Author

 ![Artem Chapeye](/sites/g/files/omnuum4931/files/2026-03/2026.04%20TCUP%20Reads%20Chapeye-24-200x200-web-speaker.png)

 

An author of both creative nonfiction and popular fiction, **ARTEM CHAPEYE** was born and raised in the small Western Ukrainian city of Kolomiya and has spent much of the last twenty years living in Kyiv. He has authored two novels and four books of creative nonfiction, and is a co-author of a book of war reportage. A five-time finalist of the BBC Book of the Year Award, his recent collection *The Ukraine* was one of three finalists in the award’s new nonfiction category in 2018.

Artem is an avid traveler who has spent approximately two years living, working, and traveling in the U.S. and Central America—an experience that has greatly informed his writing. His work has been translated into seven languages, and has appeared in English in the *Best European Fiction* anthology and in publications such as *Refugees Worldwide* in translation by Marian Schwartz. Artem is a past recipient of the Central European Initiative Fellowship for Writers in Residence (Slovenia) and the Paul Celan Fellowship for Translators (Austria), as well as a finalist of the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism.

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###### Questions? Contact HURI Events Coordinator, [Kat Ambrus](https://www.huri.harvard.edu/people/kat-ambrus).

###### Persons with disabilities who wish to request accommodations or who have questions about access should contact us at least two weeks in advance.

###### Watch videos of past HURI events on our [YouTube Channel](https://www.youtube.com/user/huriyt) and [subscribe](https://mailchi.mp/fas.harvard.edu/huri-subscribe) to our email list to receive announcements about upcoming events and other activities of the Institute.



 

 



 

 See also:- [ Book Talk ](/event-type/book-talk)
- [ Special Event ](/event-type/special-event)
- [ TCUP Event ](/event-type/tcup-event)
- [ Contemporary Literature ](/fields-expertise/contemporary-literature)
- [ Contemporary Ukraine ](/fields-expertise/contemporary-ukraine)
- [ Russia-Ukraine War ](/fields-expertise/russia-ukraine-war)
- [ Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program ](/program/temerty-contemporary-ukraine-program)
- [ Public Event ](/event-categories/public-event)
 
 

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