Auction on Christmas Eve
Coronation of the Word presents winning novels
This is the seventh year of Coronation of the Word, the nationwide competition of novels, film scripts, and plays, founded by Kraft Foods Ukraine Company (Korona Chocolate) and the TV channel 1+1. The goal of the competition is to support the development of Ukrainian literature. Since its inception, more than 60 novels have been published.
This year’s competition featured the first collection of film scripts by finalists from the years 2000-04. On Dec. 21 published novels by the winners of the 2005- 06 competition were launched, among them Temna Voda (Dark Water; first prize) and Zoopark, abo Dity do 16-y Rokiv (A Zoo or Children under 16; second prize) both by Andrii Kokotiukha; Formula by Ihor Buzko, Bilyi Slon (White Elephant) by Maria Rymar; and Ihry (Games) by Yaroslava Lytvyn.
The books were published in a press run of 3,000, considered a respectable number today, by the literary agency Zeleny Pes and publishing houses Nora Druk, and Fact. “When I recall how our presentations looked several years ago, I understand that progress, maybe somewhat slow, is taking place,” said Yurii Logush, the chairman of the board of Kraft Foods Ukraine Company.
“New writers are appearing, books are being published, and editions are increasing. The most important thing is that we are starting to understand that books are a kind of business. For if we say that it’s art, not business, and then wait for the state to help, Ukrainian literature will fall into decay.”
This was a stylish show conducted in the form of a Christmas Eve auction (stage manager: Andrii Prykhodko; set designer: Borys Firtsak; host: Serhii Arkhypchuk). The atmosphere was light and easy. Anticipation of Christmas was in the air, perhaps evoked by the angels on stilts. When Taras Chubai came out on stage, I wanted him to sing his famous song “Mykolai Borodatyi.”
The authors’ signed manuscripts arrived with an added bonus: humorous improvised illustrations on large sheets of Wattman paper by Vitalii Kapranov, Mykola Zhulynsky, Yurii Logush, and Yevhen Nyshchuk. Andrii Kokotiukha’s manuscript Temna Voda was the first item. When the bidding started from the opening price of 15 hryvnias and rose to 150, the author joked that Paul McCartney’s autograph costs several million dollars. The response was 350! Finally, Temna Voda was sold for 450 hryvnias. The hall was filled with people commenting: “What will the artist Leonid Hupalchuk say?” “Two hundred for Iryna Oliinyk, the author of dictionaries,” “Has Poltava from New York stopped bidding? The latter question was a reference to Logush, who is a member of the Poltava Countrymen Association and a US citizen. All five author manuscripts of the newly-published novels were sold for an average of 350-500 hryvnias.
“Today the specifics of the Ukrainian market are such that readers are orienting themselves toward a specific writer,” the director of the literary agency Pyramid, Orest Bakaichuk, explained. “In order for a book to be bought it should first be well advertised on TV. For example, in Poland, which I visit, every day there are shows devoted to literature. Writers are invited to one show, publishers to another, and the most popular shows are those where celebrities talk in the studio about books. If a certain book is mentioned, it will be successful.
“In Ukraine, unfortunately, there are no TV channels that broadcast literary programs. Here books by Yurii Andrukhovych, Maria Matios, and Oksana Zabuzhko are mostly sold. The Coronation of the Word makes an author’s name. The winners know that their works will definitely be published. For example, Andrii Kokotiukha is almost compared with such well-known authors as Iren Rozdobudko, who, by the way, also got her start from this competition,” Bakaichuk said.
The money collected from the auction, approximately $500, will be donated to the charity project Give a Child a Book, which is part of the Christmas Book Fair. The project was launched in Kyiv in March 2006 and in Lviv in September. Oleksandra Koval, the president of the Publishers’ Forum, the chief organizer of the charity action, says that, according to preliminary information, nearly 40,000 books for village schools and orphanages have been collected.
