Ukrainian poet, journalist and translator Iya Kiva became the first laureate of the Polish Ferdinand Ossendowski Prize for Translators. She reported this on her Facebook page.

According to Kiva, she received the award for translations of Polish poetry into Ukrainian, in particular the works of Ewa Lipska and Krystyna Milobendzka. The prize was awarded on October 29 during the Poznan festival of Central and Eastern European literature “Endemites”, which, despite the rain and bad weather, became for the participant “one of the warmest in terms of human support, love and cordiality.”.

The writer admitted that after the start of a full-scale invasion she translates much less frequently “due to lack of energy and the inability to sell herself.”. However, she regarded the award she received as a sign that it was worth returning to translations, because “translating poetry is about love and freedom.”.

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According to Suspilne, the Ferdinand Ossendowski Prize was founded in 2025. The initiator was David Jung, editor-in-chief of the magazine Zeszyty Poetyckie, which has been popularizing Polish literature abroad for many years. The award presentation took place jointly with Jaroslav Mikolajczyk, a representative of Popcentrala magazine.

The name of the prize is symbolically connected with the figure of the Polish writer and journalist Ferdinand Ossendowski, whose works were translated into dozens of languages. His legacy, according to the founders of the award, personifies the dialogue between cultures and the importance of literary exchange, which is especially important for modern translators.

Iya Kiva is a Ukrainian poet, translator, journalist and critic, member of PEN Ukraine.

She is the author of several poetry collections, including “Further from Heaven”, “The Laughter of an Extinguished Fire”, “The First Page of Winter” and “We Will Wake Up Different”, which have repeatedly been included in the list of the best books according to the Ukrainian PEN. In 2024 she was shortlisted for the Women In Arts Prize for Literature and her poem is there hot war in the tap (translated by Catherine E. Young) has been nominated for The Pushcart Prize in 2022.

It was recently reported that the Ukrainian documentary " This achievement is historic, as the film became the first ever winner of the newly created separate category for documentary films, which the festival established for the first time in two decades.