photo © Yashika Graham

Iya Kiva [Ukraine]

Poet and translator Iya Kiva (*1984 in Donetsk), whose texts have been translated into over 30 languages, reflects on language and speechlessness, on identity and memory, on collective and personal experiences of war, trauma and uprooting. She is the author of three poetry collections and one book of interviews with Belarussian writers about protests of 2020-2021 years.  She is the author of the poetry collections Futher from Heaven (2018), The First Page of Winter (2019) and Laughter of an extinguished fire (2023), as well as  a book of interview with Belarusian authors We’ll Wake Up Different: Conversations with Contemporary Belarusian writers on Past,  Present, and Future of Belarus (2021), dedicated to the 2020-2021 protests in Belarus.  In 2022, her collection of poetry Witness of namelessness appeared in Bulgarian (trans. Denis Olegov) and another one collection of poetry Black  Roses of Time was translated into Polish (trans. Aneta Kaminska). Among other prizes and recognition, she is the winner of the II poetic tournament named after Nestor Chronicler (2019), laureate of the Special Prize “LitAkcent” Award (2019) for the book The First Page of Winter, laureate of the Literature Prize “Metaphor” for translators (2020) and the winner of the poetic competition “Haivoronnya” (2019).She translates Polish and Belarusian poetry; as a translator and editor of children’s books from English collaborates with the project “PJ Library” in Ukraine. She participated in Gaude Polonia Fellowship program of the Minister of Culture of Poland (2021), was a fellow writer in the International Writing Program (2023, USA).Iya Kiva is based in Lviv.