Silence Dressed in Cyrillic Letters

This collection of poems transforms the personal author’s loss into Ukraine’s collective experience. Since the outbreak of war in Donetsk in 2014, Iya Kiva has become an essential voice for the country’s internally displaced people, creating new metaphors for uncertainty and survival.

Originally writing in Russian, Kiva now writes in Ukrainian, reflecting her linguistic shift and her layered Ukrainian, Russian, and Jewish heritage. Her work confronts the trauma of war while offering lyrical expressions of resilience, love, and hope for a united Ukraine.