© Alhierd Bacharevič
Author
Julia Cimafiejeva (Юля Цімафеева) born in Belarus in 1982, is a writer and translator. She is the author of six poetry collections in Belarusian and the non-fiction book “Minsk Diary,” written in English. Cimafiejeva’s debut American book, “Motherfield: Poems & Belarusian Protest Diary” (Deep Vellum, 2022) was longlisted for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation and shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry. Her recent titles in German are “Ich zerschneide die Geschichte. Lyrik und Collagen” (Edition Frölich, 2025) and “Blutkreslauf” (edition.fotoTAPETA, 2025). The latest is on the list of Lyrik-Empfehlungen. As a translator, Cimafiejeva has rendered poems by Walt Whitman, Stephen Crane, Enheduanna, Paul Celan, and others into Belarusian, as well as children’s books by Maja Lunde and Stian Hole. For her translation of a poetry collection by Stephen Crane, she received the Carlos Sherman Translation Prize. In 2020, Cimafiejeva took part in the protests in Belarus following the presidential election. Since then, she has lived in exile in Europe. She was a fellow of the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Program (In 2025) and a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow (2026). Hilde-Domin-Prize for Literature in Exile from the city of Heidelberg 2026.
Events
OSTPOL BERLIN Festival OPENING
Sun, 5. Jul // 20:00,
Maschinenhaus (Kulturbrauerei) entrance: Knaackstraße 97, 10435 Berlin
