Winners and runners-up for Shevelov Prize 2023 announced

The winners and runners-up for the special distinctions of the Chapter of the Yurii Shevelov Prize for the best Ukrainian essays in 2023 were revealed on Wednesday, 13 December.

The finalists of the Shevelov Prize 2023 are:

• Zarembo Kateryna, Rise of the Ukrainian Sun (Choven publishing house)

• Mykhed Oleksandr, Callsign for Yova. Chronicles of the Invasion (Vydavnytstvo Staroho Leva publishing house)

• Petrosaniak Halyna, Our Neighbor Albert Hoffmann (Vydavnytstvo 21 publishing house)

Photo: PEN-Ukraine

Furthermore, this year will see the presentation of several special awards. Andrii Hudima posthumously received the special distinction of the chapter for his book 69 spices for the Heart, for his "taste for life and words, with deep gratitude to the Hero for his rank".

Another special award will be given to Andrii Sodomor for his book Under a Strange Shadow, "for his masterful continuation of the tradition of Ukrainian neoclassicists in essays".

A special Radio Culture award will also be presented. A radio version of the winner's work will be created based on the essay, which will then be broadcast.

As usual, the name of the laureate will be announced on the birthday of Yurii Shevelov on 17 December.

The 2023 Chapter of the Prize includes: Volodymyr Yermolenko, President of PEN Ukraine (Head of the Chapter); Olha Hnatiuk, researcher and professor at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and Warsaw University; Oleksandr Savruk, dean of the Kyiv-Mohyla Business School; Oleh Kotsiuba, literary critic and head of the publishing programme of the Ukrainian Scientific Institute of Harvard University; Leonid Finberg, editor-in-chief of the Spirit and Letter publishing house; Tamara Hara Nborova, literary critic and corresponding member of NASU (Institute of Literature); Eleonora Solovei, literary critic; Andrii Bondar, writer, essayist, translator and laureate of the Prize in 2021; Andrii Pavlyshyn, journalist, historian, translator and laureate of the Prize in 2022; Taras Liutyi, philosopher, essayist and laureate of the Prize for 2020; and Tetiana Teren, journalist and executive director of PEN Ukraine.

About the award

The Yurii Shevelov Prize was established in 2013. It is named after Yurii Shevelov, who founded modern Ukrainian essays.

It is awarded once a year to a Ukrainian author for fiction and nonfiction essays. Fiction or nonfiction essays by Ukrainian authors published in paper form during the calendar year are accepted for consideration.

The winners of the Prize of the past years were Taras Prokhasko (Of One and the Same), Andrii Portnov (Stories for Home Use), Konstantyn Moskalets (Spolokhi), Oleksandr Boichenko (More/Less), Vakhtang Kebuladze (Cells of Fate), Andrii Lyubka (Saudade), Volodymyr Yermolenko (Fluid Ideologies), Diana Klochko (65 Ukrainian masterpieces. Recognised and Implicit), Taras Liutyi (Culture of Delights and Resistance) and Andrii Bondar (Delicacy for Medor), and Andrii Pavlyshyn (Eternity still threatens us).

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