2008 Shevchenko Prize winners
List of names to be signed by president
The Taras Shevchenko National Prize Committee has drawn up the final lists of winners after three rounds of deliberation. The first round involved the preliminary selection of nominees by open voting. During the second round nominees were selected for the third round by secret balloting (publication of nominees’ names by the newspaper Uriadovyi kurier; analysis of press coverage; preparations in the event that expert findings are required). During the third round the submitted works were summarized, secret balloting was held, and the final lists were submitted to the National Awards and Heraldry Commission, which is tasked with preparing findings on the nominees and submitting them to the president of Ukraine for endorsement.
Nominees that make it to the third round can be nominated again, but no more than two times. This national award is conferred on an author, artist, or performer only once during his/her lifetime. The winner is paid a sum that is determined every year by the president of Ukraine (last year it was 130,000 hryvnias).
There are five annual Shevchenko prizes in the following nominations: fiction (poetry, prose, plays, translations); documentary and scholarly-critical (aesthetic, literary history, art history, essays, criticism, memoirs, bibliographies, journalistic publicism, journalism); fine arts (paintings, graphics, sculptures, monumental art, folk art); stage and screen art (theatrical and television shows, directing, screenwriting, acting, operatic arias, documentaries, films for television, animation).
This year, after seven heated debates and voting by the Shevchenko Prize Committee, the following winners were announced: for literature, Wira Selansky (Wira Wowk, Brazil) for her books Poezii (2000) Proza (2001), Spohady (2003) Sioma pechat (2005), Romen-zillia (2007), and her Portuguese translations of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, Vasyl Stefanyk, Lesia Ukrainka, Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky, Vasyl Stus, Vasyl Symonenko, Ivan Svitlychny, Ihor Kalynets, Vasyl Holoborodko, Ivan Drach, and Mykola Vorobiov; Liubov Holota for her novel Epizodychna pamiat (2007); and Petro Perebyinis for his collection of poetry Pshenychnyi hodynnyk (2005).
In the music category: the singing group Pikardiiska tertsiia was nominated for its concert recordings Anthology, Vol. 1, Anthology, Vol. 2, Folk, and From Heaven to Earth” (2003-06); composer Hennadii Liashenko for Cello and Symphony Orchestra Concerto no. 2, Music for Piano and Symphony Orchestra, The Mystery of Quiet for an a cappella choir, based on Taras Shevchenko’s poetry, Stained Glass Windows and Landscapes for an a cappella choir, based on the poetry of Bohdan-Ihor Antonych (2004-05).
This year the theatrical leaders are Berestechko, a play based on Lina Kostenko’s same-titled novel, staged by Rivne oblast’s Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater (director/producer: Oleksandr Dzekun; Volodymyr Petriv in the role of Bohdan Khmelnytsky); the Beniuk and Khostikoiev Theater Company’s Of Mice and Men (directed by Vitalii Malakhov, starring Natalia Sumska and Bohdan Beniuk). The committee struck the name of Hlib Zahorii, as the author of the idea, from the list when it transpired that he was in charge of financing the production.
The only winner in the cinematography division is Mykhailo Tkachuk, the director of the documentary television series The Mystery of the Norilsk Uprising (the episodes Behind Bars in the North, Virus of Defiance, Uprising of the Spirit, 2006).
The winners in the fine arts division are Vasyl Sidak for his Wood Sculpture series (2003-07) and Valerii Franchuk for his Swinging Bells of Memory series of paintings (2004-07).
Roman Lubkivsky, the chairman of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize Committee, told The Day: “This is a collective decision that was reached by the committee members. There is no sense in recounting the difficulties and conflicts, and it would not be ethical to comment on them. The list of winners still has to be approved by the president of Ukraine. This will happen on March 6 or 7. I must say that this year we had enough candidates to choose from. For the members of the committee this is both a positive trend and a problem. It is a very difficult task because you have to respect those creative people, those figures that made it to the list. Their presence there is significant, which is why we tried to review all the nominees in depth and at length. This year the range of nominations expanded. Besides painters and sculptors, we can also nominate art restorers. Thus, Myroslav Otkovych was nominated for his excellent contribution to the restoration of a unique monument of Ukrainian national culture, the iconostasis from the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross at the Skyt Maniavsky Monastery. The number of works and projects dedicated to the Ukrainian people and their history has grown, as evidenced by Oleh Skrypka, the producer of the Dreamland Ethnic Festival, and Volodymyr Melnychenko, the creator of the documentary-artistic studies ‘Mykhailo Hrushevsky: “I Settled in Moscow, at 55 Arbat Street, Apt. 8’” (2005) and ‘Taras Shevchenko: My Stay in Moscow’ (2007).”
In keeping with tradition, the awards ceremony will take place at the National Opera of Ukraine on March 9, marking Shevchenko Days in Ukraine.
