Iya Kiva

Poet and translator

Iya Kiva is a Ukrainian poet and translator based in Lviv. She is the author of three poetry collections, the latest titled Laughter of an Extinguished Bonfire («Сміх згаслої ватри»; 2023), and a book of interviews with Belarusian authors, We’ll Wake Up Different: Conversations with Contemporary Belarusian Writers on Past, Present and Future of Belarus («Ми прокинемось іншими: розмови з сучасними білоруськими письменниками про минуле, теперішнє і майбутнє Білорусі», 2021), dedicated to protests in Belarus. Kiva’s poems have been translated into more than 35 languages. She has held fellowships in several writing programs and residencies, including the Gaude Polonia Fellowship program of Poland’s culture ministry (2021) and the International Writing Program (2023, USA). Her poetry collection Silence Dressed In Cyrillic Letters is upcoming at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute in early 2026. She is a laureate of numerous Ukrainian and international awards for poetry and translation, including the Lesia and Peter Kovalev Foundation Award (Ukrainian Women's League of America) for her poetry book Laughter of an Extinguished Bonfire (2025), the Revista Timpul din România Moldova Award for «poetic resistance to war and the courage to speak about it» (2025), and the Polish Ferdinand Ossendowski Award for translations of Polish poetry (2025).