Iryna Tsilyk

Photo: courtesy of Iryna Tsilyk / Forbes Ukraine

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Iryna Tsilyk works at the intersection of literature and film, writing poetry, short fiction, and children's books while also directing documentaries and features. Her debut documentary, The Earth Is Blue as an Orange The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (2020), won the Directing Award in the World Cinema Documentary category at the Sundance Film Festival Sundance Film Festival and screened at more than 150 festivals worldwide, including Berlinale Berlinale, IDFA IDFA, and Hot Docs. She also wrote the screenplay for Rock. Paper. Grenade Rock. Paper. Grenade and directed the film, based on the novel Who Are You? by Artem Chekh, which premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival Warsaw Film Festival. At the moment, Iryna Tsilyk is working on a feature-length animated docudramedy Red Zone which is being co-produced by Ukraine, France, and Luxembourg.

Her poetry collections Depth of Field (2016) and Thin Ice (2025) both draw on the lives of Ukrainians during the war. Since 2022, she has also written columns and essays for international outlets, including Weekendavisen Weekendavisen (Denmark), FAZ FAZ and TAZ TAZ (Germany), Republik Republik (Switzerland), Aftenposten Aftenposten (Norway), Dwutygodnik Dwutygodnik and Sestry Sestry (Poland) and many others. Two of her essays appeared in the anthology Ukraine 22 Ukraine 22 (2023), published by Penguin Random House UK.

Her earlier fiction turns to a different subject: the short story collection Red Marks on Black (2015) follows ordinary residents of Kyiv whose everyday lives rarely get told. Birthmarks (2012) traces inherited bonds between mothers and daughters, grandmothers and granddaughters, wives and husbands. She is also the author of the novel The Day After Yesterday (2008), the poetry collections Qi (2007) and The Road Beyond (an English-language volume paired with photographs by Ruslan Hrushchak, 2022), and several books for children.

Her poems and short stories have been translated into multiple languages and presented at international festivals and book fairs, including Poesiefestival Berlin, the Vilenica International Literary Festival, and the Frankfurt, Leipzig, Prague, Vienna, and Vilnius book fairs, as well as at literary events in the United States, including at Columbia University's Harriman Institute (2024) and Princeton University (2023).

Of further note: The Earth Is Blue as an Orange is studied within the French school curriculum. It features in France's recommended programmes for viewing world cinema and is now watched every year by French secondary-school students.