Take a seat at the main reading by poets Iya Kiva and Raúl Cisneros. This is the moment to get to know both the poetry and the person behind it.
Iya Kiva (1984, UKR) is among the most important contemporary Ukrainian poets and documents the war from within. With clear, rhythmic poetry, she describes how war permeates everything: memories, everyday actions, and even language itself. Her poems record what might otherwise be rewritten and offer her fellow citizens a comforting voice.
Raúl Cisneros (PER) comes from the farming community of Pariamarca in Ayacucho, Peru, where he worked as a farmer, livestock herder, and baker before studying language and literature. He writes in Quechua, the largest Indigenous language family of the Andes. In his poetry, he weaves Pachamama, water, seeds, and rituals together with memories of migration and life in the city.
Host Jelle van Riet opens the main reading with a short introductory conversation. After that, both poets will read from their own work, sharing a personal selection of brand-new poems, their response to the festival theme, or a surprising gem from their oeuvre.
