Ihar Kulikoŭ

Ihar Kulikoŭ (; born January 22, 1988, Minsk) is a Belarusian poet and translator.

Biography

Ihar Kulikoŭ was born on January 22, 1988, in Minsk. He graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University with a degree in Romance-Germanic Philology (English Department) in 2010. Kulikoŭ worked as an English language teacher at the Belarusian State Academy of Arts and also taught private Sanskrit classes (2014-2021).

Literature works

Kulikoŭ is a poet and translator. His works have appeared in the literary journals Dziejaslou and ARCHE. He is the author of seven poetry collections: “Паварот на мора” [A Turn Toward the Sea] (Minsk, 2011), “Свамова” [Svamova] (Minsk, 2013), “Сівер-гара” [Mount North] (Minsk, 2015), “Валадар загадак” [The Lord of Riddles] (Minsk, 2017), “Храм ракі” [A Temple of the River] (Minsk, 2019), “Вецер нішто і рэха цьмы” [The Wind of Nothing and the Echo of Darkness] (Minsk, 2021), and “Нетутэйшая далечыня” [A Distance Not of This Place] (Warsaw, 2025).

Ihar Kulikoŭ translates from English and Sanskrit into Belarusian. His translations from English include Leaf by Niggle (Minsk, 2009) and the trilogy The Lord of the Rings (Warsaw, 2023-2024) by J. R. R. Tolkien, Pulp (Minsk, 2018) by Charles Bukowski; Selected Poems of Robert Frost (Minsk, 2023), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Warsaw, 2025) by an anonymous 14th-century author, Dune by Frank Herbert (Warsaw, 2025), and from Old English, Old English Poetry (Minsk, 2019).

His translations from Sanskrit include the Rigveda. Mandala I (Minsk, 2016); Kalidasa. The Cloud Messenger (Minsk, 2017); The Tale of Shakuntala (Minsk, 2018); Bhartrihari. Selected Poems (Minsk, 2019); and Mahabharata: Selected Tales (Minsk, 2022).

Recognition and Awards

Laureate of the Carlos Sherman Literary Prize in the Poetry category (2009). Diploma recipient of the Maksim Bahdanovič Debut Prize (2011). Laureate of the Maksim Bahdanovič Debut Prize (Special Prize category) for the book Rigveda. Mandala I (2018). Laureate of the Carlos Sherman Literary Prize in the Poetry Translation category (2022) for the book Old English Poetry. Laureate of the Natallia Arsiennieva Prize (2026) for the book A Distance Not of This Place.