Thanks to competition popular Ukrainian literature has appeared

The All-Ukrainian literature competition Coronation of Word has entered its second decade. Recently the capital’s ACCO international exhibition hall hosted the 11th ceremony of awarding the competition winners. More than two hundred honored authors, including such known figures as Maria Matios, Vasyl Shklyar, Volodymyr Lys, Iren Rozdobudko, and Larysa Denysenko; the plays, transformed into theater performances — Romeo and Jasmine, Return into Nowhere, Solo for Two, The Path of St. Nicholas, When the Rain Comes Back, and A Mad Singer with the Unknown; the first Ukrainian-language musical Gloria; the movies The Button and The Dark Water — these are the Coronation’s achievements. And there are even more.

«This competition is doing a lot of things,» said the director of the Molodist International Film Festival Andrii Khalpakhchi, “First, it is encouraging for people to create. One cannot write only things that are not intended for publishing. It is ridiculous that we have no modern popular literature, as well as cinema. The Coronation has filled this niche. As for the screenplays, it would be better if the prizes were more substantial so that the winners could receive attention from state or private film production establishments. Because the new films are necessary! Moreover, our country is communicating with itself. And here the competition writers, publishers, literary critics and directors get to converse with one another.»

As the creator of Coronation of Word Tetiana Lohush could not arrive from abroad, The Day contacted her via email, asking her about her know-how.

“I believe that we have managed to create an entire literary movement, a great artistic community of like-minded people,» wrote Tetiana, «For example, the jury meeting is attended by representatives of the publishers, each of which, of course, has its own genre direction. Say, Nora-Press prefers the romantic themes, Folio favors historical ones, and Teza focuses on children’s literature. Therefore, those meetings often resemble stock trading — the publishers argue so much about a work, without even knowing what place it will take and who is the author. Our internal life is very dynamic. Each year the authoritative jury adds interesting ideas. In particular, this year we have introduced a new, children’s category, and the plays were divided into large and experimental stages.”

As the nominations in each category increase every year — three winners and laureates, we offer to view this year’s nominations at www.koronatsiya.com.»

“All high literature is riding the Trojan horse of popular literature,» said the respected literary critic Tamara Hundorova, “in order to be interesting. There is, of course, literature for gourmands. But the general tendency is that it must be readable. Due to the competition, a middle layer of literature has appeared in Ukraine. For me, the Coronation of Word is a kind of a creative laboratory that I’ve been watching for a long time.»

«One day I asked myself whether there is a similar literature competition in Russia — with the red carpet, statuettes and respectable money prizes,» concludes the writer Iren Rozdobudko. «I can’t remember. Or in Poland? No. So, the precedent has been created!»