Igor Pomierancew

(b. 1948, Saratov) – writer, journalist, and former dissident during the Soviet era. He grew up and graduated from university in Chernivtsi. Since 1978, he has lived in the West, residing in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Czech Republic. For over forty years, he has worked for international Russian-language broadcasters such as the BBC and Radio Svoboda. He is the author of numerous books of prose, essays, and poetry. His literary work revolves around the four elements: water (Late Harvest, a book about wine), earth (Czernowitz, Chernivtsi, Chernovtsy), air (Can You Hear Me?, a radio memoir), and fire (Homo Eroticus, a collection of love poems). His poems and prose have been translated into Ukrainian, English, Polish, Czech, and German. He has also made several documentary films, including Shev. A Psychologist at War and Amputation, both about the war in eastern Ukraine. A regular guest of the Meridian Czernowitz Poetry Festival.