Anna Gruver

Anna Gruver is a new-generation poet, novelist, translator, researcher, and social activist whose work emerges from experiences of war, displacement, loss, and deep cultural sensitivity.

Origin and life experience

She was born in 1996 in Donetsk, where she lived until 17 years old. War and occupation became a defining background for personal and artistic formation.

After the start of a full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, she actively volunteered — first in a shelter in the Dnipro, later — in an evacuated boarding school from the Kyiv region to Lviv.

Prose and poetry

• 2022 — the debut novel "Her Empty Places" (Stary Lev Publishing House), published during a full-scale war, entered the list of the best books of the year according to PEN Ukraine
• 2023 — a fragment of the second novel "Real Estate" was first published in Vogue Ukraine

In poetry, it was recognized even earlier:

• 2019 — poetry collection "Nothing was found for your request"
• laureate of the poetry prize of Smoloskip publishing house (III prize)
• winner of the Mega-Zin competition at the Festiwalu Miłosza (Krakow, 2024)

Her poems have been translated into English, French, German, Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, Hebrew, etc.

Translation and cultural diplomacy

• Translates from Polish to Ukrainian and vice versa: poetry and essays (in particular, the works of Bohdan Zadura, Aneta Kaminska, Paulina Pidzik, etc.)
• Translated from English by Cathy Ferris "boysgirls/" (2021)
• Worked at the Galicia Jewish Museum (Krakow) — coordinated educational projects, translated testimonies about the Holocaust

Participation in cultural platforms

Anna Gruver is a participant of writing residencies:

• Stiftung Genshagen (Germany, 2022)
• Krakow Institute of Literature (Poland, 2023)
• Kulturvermittlung Steiermark (Graz, Austria, 2024)

She was also among the winners of the European Festivals Fund for Emerging Artists – EFFEA (2024).

Her voice is heard on many scenes:

• Book Arsenal, Translatorium, PEN America, Poetry Reading Ukraine–Québec, Měsíc autorského reading (Brno)
• spoke at the panel discussion War in Ukraine: Gender & Poetry (Florida International University)

She took part in the filming of documentary Vojna jedna báseň (dir. Filip Remunda, Czech Republic, 2023).

Education and formation

• Studied at the Literary Institute named after Gorky, left because of the Russian-Ukrainian war
• Studied Judaics at the Jagiellonian University (Poland)

Presence

He writes, translates, performs poetry, conducts interviews with Ukrainian cultural figures (Lyubov Yakymchuk, Ostap Slyvinsky, Iryna Shuvalova, etc.). Lives between Kyiv and Lodz, being in constant motion between text, language and living history.