On the eve of Independence Day the League of Ukrainian Philanthropists annually announces the names of the laureates of a number of prizes it has established. Unlike last year, the ceremony took place at the Writers’ Union’s conference hall. Two of the prizes are for literature (Volodymyr Svidzynsky and Borys Necherda), while the third deals with literature only conditionally (Dmytro Nytchenko), since it was awarded to “those who care about Ukrainian printed word.”
Thus the laureates of the Volodymyr Svidzynsky Prize are Vasyl Herasymiuk, who received many awards for his Poet in the Air collection, and Stepan Sapeliak. Kharkiv-based Sapeliak belongs to the so-called seventies’ generation. Once he had to serve his ten-years term for writing allegedly nationalistic verses. In the foreword to his book, Passions for Love, James Mace writes that Sapeliuk’s verses are based on “the three eternal sources: Ukrainian folklore, the Bible, and Shevchenko.” In their turn, the jury of the Borys Necherda Prize, which is awarded to “original artistic discoveries and strengthening new streams in Ukrainian poetry,” chose Serhiy Zhadan and Vasyl Slapchuk. Slobozhanshchyna-born Zhadan won their favor with his Ballad of the War and Reconstruction, which appeared on the book market a few years ago. He is characterized by “tense metaphorical style” and “continuing the tradition of the modernist quest.” Mr. Slapchuk is also at war, this time with himself. To quote Mykola Zhulynsky, “This is a war of reminiscences, sorrows in war and emotional experience seeking a single ray of light.” The prize was awarded for the book Swimming against the Current of Grass.
Dmytro Nytchenko Prize has existed for over three years. The range of its laureates is traditionally broad: this time there were seventeen. In addition to Ukrainian citizens, the prize was given to those who have popularized the Ukrainian word abroad. Among them are Mykola Mushynka (a literary critic from Slovakia) and Jaroslav Semcesen (director of the Canadian- Ukrainian Library Centers program, under which over ten such centers have been open in Ukraine in recent years). The words “representative of the Ukrainian diaspora in the Crimea” sounded like a bitter joke, applied to chief editor of the Dzvin Sevastopolia [Bell of Sevastopol] newspaper and deputy head of the local branch of the Prosvita Society Mykola Huk, who was also honored with the Nytchenko Prize.
