Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes

Yirga Gelaw Woldeyes is a poet and storyteller from the historic town of Lalibela, Ethiopia. His bilingual memoir Trials of Hope/የተስፋ ፈተና won the 2024 Hungerford Award, and tells his life story from boy shepherd to human rights academic. Drawing on ancient Ethiopian traditions and African epistemologies, his work challenges colonial erasures and celebrates communal values. His Amharic poetry was published in the solo collection የተራሮች ጩኸት (The Cry of Mountains), and has been performed widely on stage and radio in Ethiopia. His English stories have appeared in Westerly, Stories of Perth and Ways of Being Here. He currently lives in Boorloo/Perth, where he is the Director of the Centre for Human Rights Education at Curtin University.