Literature flowing from Ostroh
Vytoky (Roots) is the name of a literary contest organized by Ostroh Academy in collaboration with the national newspaper The Day, with financial support from the University of Manitoba’s Professor Orest Cap. The competition, aimed at uncovering young talent, featured nominations in poetry, prose, fantasy, historical fiction, drama, literary studies, and literary criticism. Entrants between the ages of 14 and 28 had to submit at least 20 poems (for the poetry nomination) or at least 10 pages of text in all other nominations. Only works written in Ukrainian were eligible. The selection criteria were as follows: original elaboration of the topic, superior composition, interesting images, and diversified literary technique.
The jury has summed up the results. Each winner will receive 100 US dollars. Those who place second and third will be awarded prizes from The Day. The winners’ works will be published as a book. The awards ceremony will take place on Aug. 31, 2006, in the hall of Ostroh Academy University’s Academic Council.
COMMENTARY
Petro KRALIUK , Ph.D. (Philosophy), deputy rector for research, Ostroh Academy National University, member of the National Writers Union of Ukraine:
The Vytoky literary contest is being held for the first time. The jury was surprised to receive so many works (over 100,000), including quite a few that were sent from eastern and southern Ukraine, from the so-called Russian-speaking territories. This competition was convincing proof that Ukrainian is not only alive in these regions, but is also used to create excellent literary works. I would like to note that people representing these territories were winners in the literary nominations.
The jury conferred the awards for reasons that have nothing to do with political correctness. For example, we were amazed by a collection of mini-short stories entitled Yesterday at Dawn, written by Olena Rudiy from Kharkiv. She is only 14 years old, yet she creates striking images in her stories and she thinks like an adult. Olena Shyryna, a college student from Kherson, submitted interesting prose writings.
We were impressed by a wreath of sonnets by Daryna Berezina from Mykolayiv. Fine poems were submitted by Olha Smolnytska from Symferopil and Antonina Tymchenko from Kharkiv.
We hope the literary contest Vytoky has a future. We would like Ukrainians in Ukraine to support it materially. As for the Ostroh Academy National University, we guarantee to organize these contests and invite the best authors who take part in it to study Creative Writing at our university.
