Ilya Gridneff

Ilya was born and raised in Sydney, Australia.

Over the past two decades he’s written fiction, launched a distinguished career as an investigative journalist and foreign correspondent, and worked in development and state-building in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.

He’s worked in Papua New Guinea, Germany, Belgium, the U.K., Uganda, South Sudan and Kenya.

His first work of fiction, Your Name Here, co-authored with Helen DeWitt, will be published under the Dalkey Archive by Deep Vellum in Sept. 23, 2025.

Ilya is married to New York Times staff correspondent and Canada bureau chief Matina Stevis. They live in Toronto with their son, Nikolai, their daughter, Aliki, and two labradors, Rupert and Scoop.