Musakovska Yuliya

Yuliya Musakovska is a Ukrainian poet, writer, and translator. She was born and lives in Lviv, Ukraine. She received her Master's Degree in International Relations from the Ivan Franko National University. She is a member of PEN Ukraine.

Yuliya Musakovska is the author of six poetry collections: Stones and Nails (2024), The God of Freedom (2021), Men, Women and Children (2015), Hunting for Silence (2014), Masks (2011), and Exhaling, Inhaling (2010). She is the recipient of numerous literary awards in Ukraine, including the DICTUM Prize (2013), the Smoloskyp Prize for Poetry (2010), and the Bohdan Ihor Antonych Award (2009), among others. She is a winner of international awards, the Asian Prize for Poetry (2025) and the Diana Der-Hovanessian Prize from the New England Poetry Club (USA) for poetry translation.

Her collection, The God of Freedom, was shortlisted for the Lviv UNESCO City of Literature Prize and nominated for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize (2024). The book was published in the United States in English translation by Olena Jennings in collaboration with the author (The God of Freedom, Arrowsmith Press, 2024); it was included in The Kyiv Independent’s top 10 Ukraine-related books.

In Estonia, translator Anna Verschik received the August Sang Award (2025) for her translation of Musakovska’s poem "Magnolia Is Blooming in Someone Else's Garden", the central text of the collection Stones and Nails.

Her poetry has been translated into more than thirty languages and widely published in anthologies and literary journals worldwide. English translations of her poems have appeared in The Southern Review, Tupelo Quarterly, The Common, AGNI, and other notable magazines. Her poetry collections have also been published abroad — in Poland: Uncomfortable Poems / Wiersze kłopotliwe (2025) and Iron / Żelazo (2022), both translated by Aneta Kamińska; and in Sweden: Stenar och spik / Stones and Nails (2024), translated by Mikael Nydahl and Susanna Witt.

In 2023, Musakovska paused her twenty-year career in IT and international business to focus on literary work and cultural advocacy for Ukraine worldwide. She has spoken at numerous literary festivals and cultural events across Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, and contributed opinion columns to international publications such as The Week India, Times of Malta, Syn og Segn, and Mathrubhumi, among others.

A translator of Swedish poetry, particularly the work of Tomas Tranströmer, Musakovska also translates contemporary Ukrainian poets into English, primarily those who serve in the Armed Forces. In 2024, her English translation of Artur Dron’s poetry collection We Were Here was published by Jantar Publishing in the UK — the first book of poetry by a Ukrainian soldier poet to appear in English. She also served as editor of the Swedish edition of this collection, for which translator Mikael Nydahl was named a finalist for the Drahomán Prize.

She co-founded the international project Lines of Resistance, a collaboration between the University of Exeter (UK) and the UNESCO Cities of Literature, Lviv and Exeter, aimed at translating and promoting poetry by Ukrainian soldiers and activists. The initiative inspired the launch of the Amber Poets series at Jantar Publishing, which has already released books by Artur Dron’ and Yaryna Chornohuz.

Together with Audiostories Publishing, Yuliya Musakovska created the audiovisual project Tales of Hope and Courage, reflecting the Ukrainian wartime experience. The project intertwines her own poetry with the works of Ukrainian soldiers: Eva Tur, Artur Dron’, Yelyzaveta Zharikova, Fedir Rudyi, and Ihor Mitrov. Its premiere took place in February 2025 in India (in English), followed by presentations in Poland (in Polish) and Ukraine (in Ukrainian).