Seagulls

A Black Lawrence Press Immigrant Writing Series Selection

A teenage Olympic champion in Krakow, a stripper in New York, an American professor at Yale, a tech executive, and a doctor turned undocumented nanny—in a stunning collection of linked stories, Seagulls follows these women and men as they navigate exile, marriage, violence, and love in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


Nina Chayka's debut collection draws on stories collected by the author from Ukrainians and Russians whose lives were shattered by the war, and from the author's own experiences as a member of a Muslim minority in Russia, her escape from harassment and threats of the Russian government, and her eventual exile in the United States.


Through these interconnected lives, Seagulls explores how individuals bound by war find the relentless, if sometimes reluctant, need to move forward.