Natalia Belchenko

Natalia Belchenko was born on January 7, 1973, in Kyiv.[1] She completed studies in Philology at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.[1][2]

Natalia Belchenko debuted in 1997, with a book titled Sleep Warden.[1] She has published nine poetry collections.[2] Belchenko is a laureate of several awards, including the Hubert-Burda-Preis für junge Lyrik (2000) and the National Writer’s Union of Ukraine Mykola Ushakov Prize in Literature (2006).[1] In 2017 she won a scholarship from the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage “Gaude Polonia” program.[2][3] Her poems have been translated into German, French, English, Bulgarian, Korean, Dutch, Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and Hebrew.[2][3]

Apart from writing, Belchenko also works as a literary translator, translating from Ukrainian and Belarusian into Russian and from Polish to Ukrainian.[1] She has translated, among others, works by Vasyl Makhno, Marianna Kiyanovska, Olesya Mamchich, Yuriy Izdryk, Zuzanna Ginczanka, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz[1] and Bolesław Leśmian.[4] She is a recipient of "Metaphor" Translation Award (2014)[4][5] and placed third in an International competition for the best Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian translations of Wisława Szymborska poetry (2015).[1][2][3]

Belchenko is a member of PEN Ukraine.[3]

• Sleep Warden, 1997
• Transit, 1998
• Karman imën Pocket of Names, 2002
• Creature in the Landscape, 2006
• Ответные губы (Reciprocal Lips), 2008
• A Wanderer/Fugitive, 2010
• Zrimorodok, 2013
• Знаки і знади (Signs and temptations), 2018[1]