Iya Kiva


Iya Kiva is a Ukrainian poet, translator, journalist, and critic. She is the author of the books, Подальше от рая, Перша сторінка зими, and Ми прокинемось іншими: розмови з сучасними білоруськими письменниками про минуле, теперішнє і майбутнє Білорусі. She is a member of PEN Ukraine. Kiva writes in Ukrainian and Russian.

Early life and education

Iya Yanivna Kiva was born on May 4, 1984, in the city of Donetsk. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Donetsk National University, majoring in Russian Language, Literature, and Culturology. She also studied graphic design. Due to the Russo-Ukrainian war, in the summer of 2014, she moved to Kyiv.

Career

Kiva began writing in Ukrainian at the beginning of the war in 2014. These included poems, translations and reviews, published in domestic and foreign periodicals, as well as in anthologies such as, Антологія молодої української поезії III тисячоліття. She is the author of the poetry collections Подальше от рая and Перша сторінка зими. Her poems have been translated into 33 languages, including English.
She is the winner of a number of international and Ukrainian festivals and competitions, including the International Poetry Festival "Emigrant Lyre" and the International Poetry Competition "Gaivoronnya". Kiva is a laureate of the award named after Yuri Kaplan, the literary competition of the Smoloskyp publishing house, the Metaphora translation prize, and others. She is the winner of the II Poetry Tournament and the Nestor the Chronicler Prize, as well as Metaphora Translation Prize.
The book Подальше от рая was included in the list of the best books of 2018 according to PEN Ukraine. The poetry collection, Перша сторінка зими, received a special award from the jury of the "ЛітАкцент-2019" award, and was included in the list of the best books of 2019 according to PEN Ukraine. The book, Ми прокинемось іншими, was included in the list of important non-fiction books according to The Village Ukraine, and the list of the best books of 2021 according to the Ukrainian PEN.
She has participated in poetry events, as well as national and international festivals in Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Belgium, Finland, the USA, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, Italy, Georgia, Austria, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Denmark, Romania, Moldova, Lithuania. She is a scholar of the program of the Minister of Culture of Poland Gaude Polonia, and participant in the literary residence "Гніздо" in the village of Vytachiv, Kyiv Oblast. As a translator, Kiva participated in international translation seminars "Cities of translators digital", a draft program of the German Translation Foundation "TOLEDO" with the support of the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and "Tłumacze bez granic".

Selected works

Poetry

  • Further from Heaven, 2018
  • The First Page of Winter, 2019
  • A witness to namelessness, 2022
  • Black roses of time, 2022
  • The laughter of an extinguished fire, 2023
  • Ія Ківа. Осиротілі дерева / Ija Kiwa. Osierocone drzewa / Iya Kiva. The Orphaned Trees. — Krakow, Krakowskie Biuro Festywalowe; Versopolis, 2024. — 54 p.
  • Iya Kiva. La guerra è sempre seduta su tutte le sedie / Traduzione e note critiche di Yuliia Chernyshova e Pina Piccolo. — Milano, La Vita Felice, 2024. — 136 p.
  • Ija Kiva. Tidens nya alfabet / I översättning av Mikael Nydahl & Diana Dobrodij. — Lund, Ariel & Ellerströms, 2024. — 56 s.
  • Ija Kiva. 9 dikter. / Översättning till svenska av Mikael Nydahl & Diana Dobrodij; Översättning till engelska Kathering E. Young, Amelia Glaser, Yulia Ilchuk, Yevgeniya Kanyshcheva och Philip Nikolayev. – Umea, Text & Kultur, 2025. — 32 pp.; in Sweden, Ukrainian and English)
  • Silence Dressed in Cyrillic Letters, 2026

    Anthologies

  • Breed. Anthology of Ukrainian writers of Donbass, 2017
  • Ukrainian Nadzieja. Anthology of poetry, 2017
  • Anthology of young Ukrainian poetry of the third millennium, 2018
  • Poetic subway, 2020
  • Anthology of young Ukrainian poetry "ROMAN. K 30+ ", 2021
  • Reading of the young city, 2021
  • Invasion: Ukrainian Poems about the War. /Trans. from Ukrainian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky. - Dublin, Ireland: Survision Books. - 2022.
  • Under Ukrainas öppna himmel. Röster ur ett krig: En litterär antologi./Red. Mikael Nydahl, Kholod Saghir. — Linderöd: Ariel förlag; Svenska PEN, 2022. — 288 sidor
  • Voices of Freedom: Contemporary Writing From Ukraine. — Winston-Salem, USA: 8th & Atlas Publishing, 2022.
  • TMINTIS UGNIS DEGUONIS. Iš mūsų laiko Ukrainos poezijos / Vertė Antanas A. Jonynas. — Vilnius, leidykla «Odilė», 2022. — 224 p.
  • Ukrajina 2022: pjesnički ljetopis rata / Pripremila i prevela Alla Tatarenko
  • PEN România la centenar. Fotografie de război / Edited by Radu Vancu. — Сasa de pariuri literare, 2022. — 220 p.
  • In the Hour of War: Poems from Ukraine / Edited by Carolyn Forché and Ilya Kaminsky. — Arrowsmith Press, 2023. — 114 p.
  • RĂZBOIUL MI-A LUAT TOT. Scriitori ucraineni față în față cu războiul / Antologator: Dumitru Crudu. — Chişinău, Editura Prut International, 2023. — 114 p.
  • Wojna 2022: eseje, wiersze, dzienniki / Antologia. — Warszawa, Centrum Mieroszewskiego, Nowa Polszcza, 2023. — 424 p.
  • DEN KRIEG ÜBERSETZEN: Gedichte aus der Ukraine / Hrsg.: Claudia Dathe, Tanja Rodinova, Asmus Trautsch. — Berlin, edition.fotoTAPETA, 2024.
  • ''Hét nyelven beszélünk | We Speak the Same Language: Gérard Cartier, Guy Helminger, Ija Kiva, Jaan Malin, Yvonne Reddick, Antonio Rivero Taravillo. — Budapest, Labirintus, 2024. — 160 oldal ''

    Translations

  • Elizabeth Suneby and Laurel Molk, No Room for a Pup!, 2022
  • Rita Golden Gelman, Queen Esther Saves Her People, 2021
  • Blessed Benjamin in translations, 2021
  • Blessed Benjamin. The light of travel and separation. 2021
  • Dmitry Strotsev, Belarus overturned, 2021
  • Yael Molchadsky, Shopkeeper and baker, 2021
  • Pamela Mayer, Don't Sneeze at the Wedding, 2020
  • Eric A. Kimmel, Gershon's Monster, 2020
  • Gloria Koster, Ruthie is Little Red Riding Hood, 2019
  • Lesik Panasyuk, Screams of hands. Poems., 2018
  • Maria Galina, Indigenous, 2016

    Journalism

  • We will wake up different: conversations with contemporary Belarusian writers about the past, present and future of Belarus, 2021

    Essays

  • What will give us strength? Essays of Ukrainian intellectuals on the focus of the Ukrainian PEN 2019/2020, 2021
  • Iya Kiva. // Krytyka magazine, November 2023.
  • Iya Kiva. // The dreaming machine, № 13.
  • Iya Kiva. // Online anthology "State of War".