Volha Hapeyeva

Volha Hapeyeva (Вольга Гапеева; born 1982 in Minsk) is a Belarusian poet, writer, translator, and linguist. Hapeyeva holds a doctorate in comparative linguistics and has taught at two universities, in Minsk and Vilnius.

Hapeyeva has been publishing poetry, prose, and drama since 1999.

In addition, she is a translator of fiction and poetry from English, German, Chinese, and Japanese.

She is a member of the Belarusian PEN-Centre and of the Union of the Belarusian Writers.

Her works have been translated into English, German, Polish, Czech, Macedonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Georgian, Dutch, and Russian.

A collection of her poetry in English, In My Garden of Mutants, appeared with Arc Publications in 2021, translated by Annie Rutherford.

The collection received a PEN Translates award.

Volha collaborates with electronic musicians and gives audio-visual performances.

Volha Hapeyeva translates to Belarusian mainly from English, German and Chinese, but also other languages, including Japanese, Latvian and Ukrainian.

She teaches translation theory and practice at Minsk State Linguistic University and gives seminars on translation studies for various initiatives and organizations.

She does not use bridge languages or word-for-word translations and always translates directly from the original language.

Among others, she has translated works by Robert Walser, Sarah Kane, Dai Wangshu, Mari Konno, Maira Asare and.

Volha Hapeyeva, tr.

Annie Rutherford: In My Garden of Mutants – Arc, 2021 (poetry)