Although quite a few publishing companies - mostly private - have appeared in Ukraine over the past several years, the problem of low print runs for Ukrainian books remains unsolved. This is especially true of children’s books. At the beginning of this year the Zoloty leleka (Golden Stork) competition for the best books for schoolchildren in the lower grades was organized to solve the problem of the lack of quality literature for children. The idea was initiated by Kyiv’s Hrani-T Publishers.
What makes this contest unique is that this kind of project has never been undertaken in Ukraine. It is aimed primarily at supporting young and unknown writers. Hrani-T’s chief editor Diana Klochko says that there are many young people in Ukraine who write fairy tales, stories, and novels for children: “If we adopt the right kind of responsible approach, the quality children’s literature niche will soon be filled. We were also happy to realize that there is no dearth of literary works in Ukrainian. We receive manuscripts from the Crimea and eastern Ukraine, and their language and style are in no way inferior to those written in Kyiv. In fact, there have been cases where we were amazed by the literary style and command of grammar of some Crimean authors.”
At a press conference dedicated to the literary competition, Valentyna Babyliulko, the director of the publishing department at the State Committee on Radio and Television, cited the following depressing statistic: there are 1.2 books for each resident of Ukraine: “This isn’t an index that can provide our children with good Ukrainian books.”
The statistics of the Book Chamber of Ukraine indicate that the output of Ukrainian books in the first eight months of 2007 increased by 120 percent compared to the same period last year. Babyliulko comments: “We can only rejoice in these figures. We recently returned from the Frankfurt Book Fair. Ukraine was represented by over a thousand book titles in the period 2006-07. One-third of the books on display were for children and the organizers were impressed. As a result, Ukraine will be a guest of honor at the book fair in 2012. In Moscow, two Ukrainian books won prizes in the Books for Children nomination: Nich pered Rizdvom (The Night before Christmas) from A-ba-ba-ha-la-ma-ha Publishers and Hrani- T’s Try kazochky u viazochku (A Cluster of Three Tales). But despite all our achievements, at this time we can only talk about improving the book market situation.”
Even though the competition was launched a few months, the organizers have received more than 300,000 manuscripts from various regions of Ukraine. The jury is headed by Mykola Hrytsenko, head of the Radio and Television Committee’s press service. The jury members include such noted writers as Maria Matios, Maryna and Serhii Diachenko, Vasyl Dovzhyk, Hanna Chubach; the literary scholars Oleksa Nehrebetsky, Anatolii Tkachenko, Emilia Ohar, and Halyna Rodina; National TV Company of Ukraine’s observer Alla Mihai, Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Olha Bench, and Valentyna Babyliulko.
Manuscripts will be accepted until Dec. 31. Approximately 10 books by the Golden Stork winners will be published next year and presented at the Lviv Book Publishers’ Forum.
