Book Launch and Discussion with the Author of Silence Dressed in Cyrillic Letters

Wed., May 13, 2026, 12 – 1:30 p.m.



Book launch and discussion of Silence Dressed in Cyrillic Letters with author Iya Kiva and translators Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk, in conversation with Oleh Kotsyuba (Director of Print and Digital Publications at HURI).

Born out of the pain and loss of a fragmented present, Iya Kiva’s poetry, collected in the original and in English translation in Silence Dressed in Cyrillic Letters, stitches memories of the past into Ukraine’s new reality. Since war broke out in her native Donetsk in 2014, she has become a prominent voice of Ukraine’s internally displaced citizens, finding new metaphors to express the ongoing uncertainties of this time. Kiva first began publishing in her native Russian, but, since the Donbas war, she has shifted to writing in Ukrainian. Her poems also reflect her mixed Ukrainian, Russian, and Jewish background and contribute to defining contemporary Ukraine—a culturally and linguistically diverse sovereign country. As Ukraine struggles for its existence, Kiva offers lyric poems that acknowledge the deep trauma of war while radiating love and hope.

This event is organized by HURI Books, the publications program at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute

Gazette Classification: Poetry/Prose
Organization/Sponsor: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
Speaker(s): Iya Kiva, Author, Amelia Glaser, Translator, Yuliya Ilchuk, Translator, Oleh Kotsyuba, Director of Print and Digital Publications at HURI
Contact Info: [email protected]
Harvard Key Required: No
More info: www.huri.harvard.edu…