Fiction:
–A Sketchbook to Preserve Our Family in Peacetime: An excerpt from THE SUNFLOWER BOYS by Sam Wachman, recommended by Santiago Jose Sanchez. (Electric Literature, 2025)
–Between Here and There – First Place, Berkeley Fiction Review 2024 Sudden Fiction Contest; nominated for 2024 Pushcart Prize; reading by Millie Wright
–The Right Way to Drown – New England Review – Vol. 42, № 4 (Awarded Honorable Mention, Ploughshares Emerging Writers’ Contest, September 2021, selected by Kiley Reid)
–Thirteen (Sonora Review, April 2019)
Other work:
-“10 Ukrainian Books That Show the Many Sides of a Nation.” Electric Literature, August 2025
–“Literature is a Force For Peace and Solidarity.” On Writing a Novel of the War in Ukraine. Literary Hub, August 2025
–Deportation Notice, Corrected, 2025, River Styx, May 2025
–Boy Meets Boy: Young Hearts Ushers In A New Era of Queer Cinema, Bright Lights Film Journal, January 2025
-I post to my Substack when I have nothing better to do.
Academic: Brandeis University (BA), Ukrainian Catholic University (postgraduate studies)
Professional: I’ve taught English at a tiny school in Ukraine, worked as an EMT at a children’s hospital, and schlepped manure at a sustainable farm.
Pronunciation: WALK-man, not WATCH-man. (по-українськи вимовляйте моє прізвище “вахман”)
For inquiries, please contact my agent Naomi Eisenbeiss at Inkwell Management naomi (at) inkwellmanagement (dot) com or The Sunflower Boys‘ publicist Stephanie Mendoza stephanie (dot) mendoza (at) harpercollins (dot) com.
Need a picture of me? The photo below, depicting me, is CC0 1.0 Universal, meaning that I have relinquished the copyright, and you are allowed to reproduce it without attribution. Information wants to be free! But please use it for good and not evil.
Sam Wachman portrait 2025 by Sam Wachman is marked CC0 1.0