2012 Kobzar Literary Awards
Capturing
Canadian Contributions Through Literature
By John Pidkowich
In celebration of reading literature and
books, the Ukrainian and Canadian literary community once again came together
to applaud the literary arts in Canada. The sold-out Kobzar Literary Award
2012 Ceremony and Dinner, presented by the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of
Taras Shevchenko, was held on March 1 at the Palais Royale Ballroom
located on Toronto’s Lakeshore Blvd. West. The decor and ambiance glittered
with Hollywood styled Academy Awards’ effects.
The finalists for the
2012 Kobzar Literary Award were: Myroslav Shkandrij (literary analysis),
Jews in Ukrainian Literature: Representation and Identity, Yale
University Press, London, 2009; Larissa Andrusyshyn (poetry), Mammoth,
DC Books, Montreal, 2010; Myrna Kostash (non-fiction), Prodigal Daughter: A
Journey to Byzantium, University of Alberta Press, Edmonton, 2010; Shandi Mitchell (fiction novel), Under
This Unbroken Sky, Penguin, Toronto, 2009; and Rhea Tregebov (fiction
novel), The Knife Sharpener’s Bell, Coteau Books, Regina, 2009.
Co-Masters of
Ceremonies actor/producer/writer Fred Keating, and actor/producer/director
Andrey Tarasiuk together led an extraordinary award evening programme, the pace
of which was kept in tempo by Alexander (Sasha) Boychouk at the piano and by
his multi instrumental performances during dinner interludes. The dinner menu
itself was a fusion of traditional Ukrainian and Canadian food items
excellently prepared by gourmet chef Steffan Howard.
Between dinner
courses, the audience was presented with readings by the Award’s 2012 finalists
who in-turn read passages from their short-listed books. These readings in the
authors’ voices were personable and lifted the works from the page by bringing them
to life. Appealing to the listener’s imagination of the mind, the upfront
telling of one’s story made it enticing for the audience to acquire and read
each author’s book from cover-to-cover.
In the
introduction, A Tribute to the
Kobzar Tradition, the audience learned that Ukraine’s bard Taras Shevchenko
had his volume of 8 poems titled Kobzar published in 1840 that sparked
the passions of the Ukrainian nation, and inspired generations of writers and
readers to come. In this context, it is only appropriate for the Kobzar Award
Ceremony to be held during the month in which Taras Shevchenko was born (March
9, 1814) and died (March 10, 1861).
In his greetings,
Shevchenko Foundation President Andrew Hladyshevsky asserted that literature by
and about Ukrainians in Canada is in fact Canada’s own literature. Further, he
reminded everyone to kindle this notion by signing out from the library any
Ukrainian book, especially on Ukrainian Literature Day, March 9. This
national initiative by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress has events to raise
awareness among Canadians that Ukrainian literature is vibrant and
growing. Also to everyone’s delight, he
announced that the Shevchenko Board of Directors had agreed that this year, each
short-listed finalist will receive $1,000 in addition to the Kobzar Award
winner’s $25,000 prize, $5,000 of which is to be shared with the publisher to
promote the winning work.
The Shevchenko
Foundation first presented the biennial Kobzar Literary Award in 2006
with the goal to contribute to the literary arts of Canada by providing writers
with an incentive to explore Ukrainian Canadian themes. The 2012 Award’s five
short-listed authors who best presented the theme with literary merit through
fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and well-documented research were chosen and
deemed worthy by an esteemed adjudication panel of the writers’ peers: Denise
Chong; Nino Ricci; MG Vassanji; and Randal Maggs, also the 2010 Kobzar Literary
Award winner for Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems (Brick, 2004).
In true awards night
anticipation and excitement on stage surrounded by the Ceremony’s cast of
players, renowned Canadian author Nino Ricci, joined by fellow Honourary Patron
Joy Kogawa, announced the 2012 Kobzar Literary Award winner: Shandi Mitchell
for her fiction novel Under This Unbroken Sky, a narrative that “honours
the ancestry of many Canadian Ukrainians,” whose “memorable characters
valiantly face betrayal and every hardship that prairie life renders in their
search for a better life.”
Among special guests present
at the Awards event were Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship & Immigration
Charles Sousa; Antanas Sileika, Artistic Director, Humber School for Writers;
Geoffrey Taylor, Director of Authors at Harbourfront Centre, as well as authors
Dr. Marusia Bociurkiw, Richard Truhlar and film maker Orest Sushko.
Recognized by Andrew
Hladyshevsky and acknowledged by applause from attendees, the success of the
2012 Kobzar Literary Award event was due, in part, to the tireless work by Dr.
Christine Turkewych, Literary Arts Director, who encourages all Canadian
writers to keep writing and all of us to keep reading books on Ukrainian
Canadian themes. Without a readership/market, Canadian publishers will not
accept Ukrainian Canadian themed manuscripts.
Of course, no appreciation for success would be complete without the
recognition of the dedicated hard work by the Award Ceremony Committee with
Chair, Alla Shklar, and seventeen professional “literati with white roses”:
Irene Bilaniuk; Odarka Chudoba; Sonia Holiad; Irene Hordienko; Dr. Christine
Kowalsky; Winn Kuplowsky; Oksana Kuryliw; Nadia Luciw; Daria Olynyk; Olesia
Romanko; Liijanna Shklar-Kushnirenko; Sonia Solomon; Lesia Stefaniw; Zenia
Turkewych-Miner; Krystina Waler; Karen Yarmol-Franko; and Oksana Zakydalsky.
Special gratitude was
extended to the event’s corporate sponsors for their generous support of the
Kobzar Literary Award: Ian Ihnatowycz and Dr. Marta Witer; the Temerty Family
Foundation, Mitchell, Bardyn & Zalucky LLP, Buduchnist Charitable Foundation,
Ukrainian Credit Union Ltd., as well as numerous donors such as Erast and
Yarmila Huculak, Rosewood Estates, Turner & Porter Funeral Directors, and
individuals like John Warburg of Toronto and Nell Nakoneczny from Winnipeg, who
were recognized in the programme.
For more information
about the finalists and the contents of their shortlisted books, please visit
the website www.kobzarliteraryaward.com.
PHOTOS
1 – Larissa Andrusyshyn
2 – Myrna Kostash
3 – Rhea Tregebov
4 - Shevchenko Foundation President Andrew Hladyshevsky presents
the 2012 Kobzar Literary Award to Shandi Mitchell for her novel Under This
Unbroken Sky
5
- Dr. Christine Turkewych
6 - Prof. Myroslav Shkandrij