yeldana talgatkyzy

Yeldana Talgatkyzy is a Kazakh fiction writer and poet. Her work has been supported by Brooklyn Poets, McMormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House), Under the Volcano Residency, and the Hubbard Hutchinson Memorial Fellowship. She has been awarded the Bullock Poetry Prize of the Academy of American Poets and the Benjamin B. Wainwright Prize in fiction and selected as the finalist of the 2025 Ninth Story Regeneration Contest.

Poetry

"First Bull of the Spanish Enlightenment," Academy of American Poets (May 2024)

"This Halloween I'm dressing up as a tooth fairy," BULLSHIT LIT (October 31, 2023)

"From Swamps," Equatorial Magazine Issue 1 (June 2022)

Honors

2026

Under the Volcano Residency, Grace Paley Fellow in Fiction

2025

Tin House Scholar in Short Fiction, Autumn Workshop

Brooklyn Poets Fall Fellow

Tin House Fall Residency, Finalist

Ninth Letter Regeneration Prize, Finalist

Hubbard Hutchinson Class of 1917 Memorial Fellow in Writing

Highest Honors in English

Benjamin B. Wainwright Award in Best Short Fiction, Winner

Dunbar Student Writing Prize, Honorable Mention

2024

The Academy of American Poets Bullock Poetry Prize, Winner

2023

The Class of 1945 World Travel Fellow

Readings and Presentations

Brooklyn Poets Fall Fellows Showcase, November 2025.“Whatever Moves These Mountains and Other Stories,” English Honors Thesis Presentation, Williams College, May 2025.“In Our Cellar,” Annual Student Fiction and Poetry Reading, Winner of the Benjamin B. Wainwright Award for Best Short Fiction, May 2025, Judge: Ethan Rutherford.“First Bull of the Spanish Enlightenment,” Annual Student Fiction and Poetry Reading, Winner of the Bullock Prize for Best Poetry, May 2024, Judge: Jesse Nathan.“To my white people,” Opened for Paul Tran’s Poetry Reading, May 2022.