Katya Cengel

Lecturer | Journalism Department

Areas of Expertise

Immigration

Deportation

Post-Soviet Life

Ukraine

Cambodia

Minor League Baseball

International Reporting

Contact Information

805.756.5049

Email

Website

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Biography

Katya Cengel has written for The New York Times Magazine, Marie Claire and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She has reported from North and Central America, Europe, Asia and Africa and was based in the former Soviet Union for half a decade and was a features and news writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal from 2003-11. She received the Independent Publisher Book Award (IPPY) in 2020 and was the Foreword Indies 2019 winner for, “From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union”; and 2013 Kentucky Literary Award finalist for “Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life.” She has been awarded grants from the International Reporting Project, the International Women’s Media Foundation and the International Center for Journalists.  

Education

• B.A., University of California San Diego, Writing and History

In the News

• A Book & Its Author Podcast: From Chernobyl With Love by Katya Cengel
• The Bookstop Podcast: Kerry Slattery, and Author, Journalist, and Teacher Katya Cengel
• Overflowing Bookshelves: Interview with Katya Cengel

Recent Videos

• CQ CHATS: News, Media and Election in the USA - Episode 3
• APIA Author Panel: Overcoming Loss of Identity and Trauma
• Documenting Disaster: Perils of Truth and Information
• This Week with Khmer TV | Interview with Katya Cengel

Publications

• The Man Without a Name
• How the Vampire Got His Fangs

Recent Books

• From Chernobyl with Love: Reporting from the Ruins of the Soviet Union
• Exiled: From the Killing Fields of Cambodia to California and Back
• Bluegrass Baseball: A Year in the Minor League Life