Ivan Goran Kovačić (21 March 1913 - 13 July 1943) was a prominent Yugoslav poet and writer of the 20th century.

He was born in Lukovdol (part of Vrbovsko), a town in Gorski Kotar, to Croatian father Ivan and Jewish mother Ruža (née Klein). His middle name Goran stems from that ("goran" meaning "hill-man"). During World War II, he joined the Partisan forces.

His best known work is "Jama" (The Pit), which ranks among the most celebrated Yugoslav poems ever written. He penned it during the war, while in service near the city of Livno, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The poem was written out of intellectual and ethical responsibility that condemns fascist atrocities committed by the Ustaše. Ivan Goran Kovačić was killed by Chetnik troops in an east-Bosnian village of Vrbica near Foča on July 13 1943.

His work is an example of anti-war poetry with messages against torture, mass murders and war crimes. Jama was studied in elementary schools throughout the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Many schools in the successor states still bear his name. Kovačić attended the Gymnasium Karlovac in the city of Karlovac in Croatia. In his honour, the Karlovac city library — the city's oldest cultural institution founded in 1838 — was re-named after him.