TORONTO – Among the many fine literary awards offered throughout the year, one award is distinguished by encouraging Canadian writers to explore Ukrainian Canadian themes. At this time of awards season, the Ukrainian and Canadian literary community gathered to celebrate the 2016 Kobzar Literary Award in support of reading books and literature, and praise the literary arts in Canada.
Founded in 2003 and presented biennially since 2006 by the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award 2016 Ceremony and Dinner was held on March 2 at the Palais Royale Ballroom located on Toronto’s lakeshore. The sold-out gala event certainly presented patrons with an atmosphere, decor and dinner reflective of a glittering awards evening and, most significantly, a sophisticated program of multi-staged crafted presentations and author readings of literary works of the highest caliber, all tied together with music for ambience.
Some 260 attendees enthusiastically welcomed the five finalists whose work was short-listed for the 2016 Kobzar Literary Award: Grant Buday (fiction novel), “The Delusionist,” Anvil Press, Vancouver, 2014; Orest T. Martynowych (non-fiction historical biography), “The Showman and the Ukrainian Cause: Folk Dance, Film and the Life of Vasile Avramenko,” University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg, 2014; Maurice Mierau (memoir), “Detachment: An Adoption Memoir,” Freehand Books, Calgary, 2014; Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (fiction, novel for young readers), “Underground Soldier,” Scholastic Canada Ltd., Toronto, 2014; and Stacey Zembrzycki (non-fiction), “According to Baba: A Collaborative Oral History of Sudbury’s Ukrainian Community,” UBC Press, Vancouver, 2014.
Maurice Mierau (left), 2016 Kobzar Literary Award Winner, with Karen Connelly, juror, and Andrew Hladyshevsky, president of the Shevchenko Foundation.
Once guests had taken their seats after a lively cocktail reception of networking and socializing, the master of ceremonies, actor and producer Fred Keating, began the award program by walking among the tables welcoming everyone and making introductions of notable guests, greeting some to say a few words, including actor and comedienne Luba Goy. Thrilled to say “hello” was 12-year-old Olivia Reid, a promising young story writer who has developed a personal preference for fantasies as an inspiration for her writing.
The pace of the evening proceeded to stay in measure with an upbeat tempo provided by musicians Alexander (Sasha) Boychouk on keyboard and saxophone, Alexei Severinets on guitar and Vinnie Venkov on bass, who as a trio also played enjoyable musical interludes as dinner entertainment.
For the past five Kobzar awardings, in-house gourmet chef Steffan Howard first reads all the short-listed works for inspiration and then prepares a creative and excellent four-course dinner with garnishes that are a fusion of traditional Ukrainian and Canadian food products and select ingredients, whose recipes are punctuated by the current Kobzar shortlist of books.
The audience’s attention was directed to the main stage with “A Tribute to the Kobzar Tradition” presented by Mr. Keating and Dr. Christine Turkewych, director of literary arts at the Shevchenko Foundation. A reflective moment of respect was paid to Ukrainians in their current struggle for dignity, assertion of identity and will for peace in war-weary Ukraine fighting Russian aggression. Ukraine’s bard Taras Shevchenko in 1840 published his eight volumes of poems, collectively titled “Kobzar,” that sparked the passions of the Ukrainian nation, inspired generations of writers and readers, and remain relevant today. In this symbolic context and as a strong gesture of unity with the Ukrainian people, it was appropriate that the Kobzar Literary Award Ceremony be held during the month in which Shevchenko was born (March 9, 1814) and died (March 10, 1861).
Between dinner courses, Dr. Turkewych introduced the 2016 Kobzar finalists and highlighted their accomplishments as writers and their multiple awards. The finalists presented from one of two mid-room platforms. They spoke personally, shared their motivations to write the narrative and read passages from their short-listed books. In such close proximity, everyone heard the author’s story in his/her own voice, which firmly connected with a captivated audience. Consequently, every listener became motivated to pick up and read the book in its entirety.
With the formality of speeches kept to an absolute minimum, a warm welcome was extended by Alla Shklar, chair of the Kobzar Award Ceremony Committee, who extolled the dedicated work offered by her committee of “literati with white roses”: Irene Bilaniuk, Lesia Chudoba, Odarka Chudoba, Sonia Holiad, Irene Hordienko, Dr. Christina Kowalsky, Win Kuplowsky, Nadia Luciw, Iryna Revutsky, Olesia Romanko, Lesia Stefaniw, Zenia Turkewych-Miner, Olenka Wasley and Oksana Zakydalsky.
Greetings were delivered by Shevchenko Foundation President Andrew Hladyshevsky. He attributed the great success of the award program to the tremendous direction given by Dr. Turkewych and the success of the award event to the contributions of the ceremony committee. Mr. Hladyshevsky commented on the significance of the award in the broader Canadian context. The growth and development of the Ukrainian Canadian presence in Canada’s literary arts is important because, he said, as we are part of Canadian culture, our stories become known to all Canadians.
Kobzar Literary Award Ceremony Committee – “literati with white roses.”
“The Kobzar Literary Award is an opportunity for Canadian writers (and their readers) to understand where we fit in the tableau of Canadian society,” said Mr. Hladyshevsky. It is interesting to have finalists of non-Ukrainian background as “those authors express how they have been influenced by core Ukrainian Canadian values that have emanated out in ripple effect to other communities,” he added.
This year, the Shevchenko board of directors agreed that each short-listed finalist will receive $1,500 in addition to the Kobzar Literary Award winner’s $25,000 prize, $5,000 of which is to be shared with the publisher. Dr. Turkewych acknowledged key sponsors, the Shevchenko Foundation and Delores Y. Buka-Huculak, who was commended for her generous donation that enabled every family in attendance to receive a complete set of the 2016 Kobzar short-listed books.
In a peer review process, the 2016 jurors – esteemed authors Karen Connelly and Tamas Dobozy, and 2012 Kobzar Literary Award Winner Shandi Mitchell – said they were inspired by the many literary works, histories, life stories and documentaries that were entered for this prize. “We were grateful, as well, for the insights they offered us into a cultural and historical tradition that were not necessarily our own. Throughout the course of reading and viewing these works, we developed a greater understanding of and appreciation for Ukrainian culture and its importance that seems especially pressing today,” they said in a joint statement.
With anticipation and suspense building through the evening, the moment had come to announce the winner. Ms. Connelly addressed the criteria by which the selection of the winner had been made. Ms. Connelly and Mr. Hladyshevsky presented the 2016 Kobzar Literary Award to Mr. Mierau for his book “Detachment: An Adoption Memoir,” the author’s narrative about being “a removed, detached” father of two newly adopted young boys from Ukraine, drawn to his own “emotionally distant” Mennonite father, also born in Ukraine, and in the process “learning to become a father and a son.”
“Detachment” also won the Alexander Kennedy Isbister Award for Non-Fiction and the Book Publishers’ Association of Alberta Trade Non-Fiction Book of the Year in 2014.
Mr. Mierau has also published three books of poems: “Autobiographical Fictions” (2015), “Fear Not” (2009), and “Ending with Music” (2002).
The Indiana-born Mr. Mierau was raised and lived in places around the world, but now lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he works as a writer and editor.
Among special guests present at the award event were Honorary Patron Joy Kogawa; Antanas Sileika, artistic director, Humber School for Writers; Joe Kertes, award-winning author; Geoffrey E. Taylor, director, and Christine Saratsiotis, associate director, International Festival of Authors at Harbourfront Center; Deborah Dundas, books editor at The Toronto Star; John Degen, executive director of the Writers’ Union of Canada; Kobzar Writers’ Scholarship recipients Ulana Snihura and Marianne Fedunkiw; filmmakers Orest Sushko and Halya Kuchmij; and Mark Marczyk of Lemon Bucket Orkestra.
Special gratitude was extended to the Kobzar Literary Award’s key sponsors for their generous support: Ihnatowycz Family Foundation, Temerty Family Foundation, Huculak Foundation, Nexus, Mitchell, Bardyn & Zalucky LLP, Buduchnist Foundation, Ukrainian Credit Union and Lindisfarne Productions, as well as numerous individual donors who were recognized in the program booklet.
For more information about the finalists and their short-listed books, readers may visit the website www.kobzarliteraryaward.ca.
The article above was originally published in the Toronto-based newspaper New Pathway.