Lapica Awards recognize Ukraine's writers (09/15/96)

Lapica Awards recognize Ukraine's writers

by Marta Dyczok

KYIV - "We would like to find another Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko or Lesia Ukrainka," said Ray Lapica when asked why he set up the Helen Lapica Awards in Ukrainian Literature. "Writers are the only salvation for Ukraine."

The first award ceremony was held on June 11 at the University of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Six awards of $1,000 were handed out to gifted Ukrainians. The poetry prize went to the Bu-Ba-Bu trio of Yuriy Andrukhovych, Oleksander Irvanets and Victor Neborak.

On accepting the award Mr. Neborak thanked the fund and noted that in addition to setting new trends in contemporary Ukrainian poetry, the trio has also broken with old social trends. He concluded his thank-you speech by informing the audience that the "three Ukrainians have been friends and colleagues for over 10 years and have never had a fight."

Other recipients were Oksana Zabushko for non-fiction, who has recently achieved notoriety for her frank exposé of sexual behavior in Ukraine from a woman's point of view in "Poliovi Doslidzhennia z Ukrainskoho Seksu" (Field Research on Ukrainian Sex), Mr. Andrukhovych for prose, Volodymyr Dibrova for translation, Anatoliy Makarov for literary criticism and Dr. Natalia Yakovenko for her work on the history of literature.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Prof. George Grabowicz of Harvard University. He was also one of the members of the selection committee along with scholars from eight other universities and institutions.

Mr. Lapica explained that in order to ensure the contest's fairness, the executive of the fund asked for nominations from reputable literary experts both in Ukraine and abroad, including the Ukrainian Writers Union, universities of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Lviv, Kharkiv and Kyiv, Harvard University and the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta.

The 80-year-old American-born Ukrainian has been actively following events in the homeland of his parents for many years. In the memory of his wife, Helen, he set up a small fund that has been distributing money to students for over one year. In an interview during his last visit to Kyiv, Mr. Lapica explained that the philosophy of the fund is to help keep Ukraine democratic. Over the past year, 80 scholarships were granted to students in Ukraine, Canada and the United States.

This year Mr. Lapica decided to expand the activities of the fund to support writers. Aware of the important role literature has played in Ukrainian history, he set up the Helen Lapica Literary Awards.

Following the success of this year's competition, Mr. Lapica plans not only to continue but to expand the awards. Before departing Kyiv he said, "When I return to the United States I will continue to fund-raise and in a few years raise the prestige of these awards to the level of the Pulitzer Prize."