$25,000 Kobzar Literary Award to be inaugurated in 2006 (12/04/05)

$25,000 Kobzar Literary Award to be inaugurated in 2006

TORONTO - The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko has announced that the inaugural Kobzar Literary Award will be presented in 2006 with a prize of $25,000.

The Shevchenko Foundation envisions the Kobzar Literary Award as a means to foster cultural development through the literary arts and create opportunities for all Canadian writers to explore Ukrainian Canadian themes relevant to Canadians.

To be presented every two years, the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award - $20,000 to the author and $5,000 to the publisher - recognizes a Canadian writer who best presents a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit through poetry, play, screenplay, musical, fiction, non-fiction or young people's literature.

The list of finalists for the award is to be released on January 16, 2006. Then, on March 2, 2006, the inaugural winner will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony to be held at Toronto's Eglinton Grand.

The board of directors of the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko on November 15 announced the judging panel for the 2006 Kobzar Literary Award. In alphabetical order, the judges are: Myrna Kostash, journalist and non-fiction author; Mieko Ouchi, actor, writer and director for theater, film and TV; Bill Richardson, writer and CBC broadcaster; and Antanas Sileika, journalist and fiction author, artistic director of the Humber School of Writers.

"We are very pleased by the caliber of this judging panel," said Andriy Hladyshevsky, president of the Shevchenko Foundation. "All four members are highly regarded in their respective fields, and will bring diverse talents and experience to the judging process."

For more information readers may contact: Christine Turkewych, Ph.D., program director of the Kobzar Literary Award and Program, Gregory Hamara, Canadian media contact, or Oksana Zakydalsky, Ukrainian media contact, at (416) 243-0122. The Shevchenko Foundation's website is located at www.shevchenkofoundation.com.

Background: Shevchenko Foundation

The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko was established in 1961 when the Ukrainian Canadian community raised funds to celebrate the work of Shevchenko, Ukraine's great poet (1814-1861), with a monument erected on the grounds of the Manitoba Legislature.

In July of 1962, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (then the Ukrainian Canadian Committee) resolved to set aside a $30,000 surplus from the Shevchenko monument project into a capital fund that became known as the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko. The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko became incorporated by an act of Parliament on July 22, 1963.

In 1964 the Shevchenko Foundation began distributing project grants, awarding $400. In 1973, on its 10th anniversary, total donations to the foundation surpassed $500,000.

Today the Shevchenko Foundation awards nearly $300,000 annually. To date the foundation has distributed over $5.5 million in grants to organizations and individuals who support cultural development among Ukrainian Canadians.

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