“Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize™” and other recent developments in Ukrainian literature

Please join the Ukrainian Studies Program at the Harriman Institute and the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE) for a discussion with writers Vasyl Makhno and Andrei Kurkov.

Vasyl Makhno’s novel Vichnyi Kalendar (The Eternal Calendar, 2019) received the 2020 “Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize™,” which is sponsored by the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter with the support of the NGO Publishers Forum (Lviv, Ukraine). Makhno and fellow writer Andrei Kurkov (who served as the head of the jury for the 2020 prize) will discuss the “Encounter” prize and other important recent developments in contemporary Ukrainian literature. The event will include opening remarks from Natalia A. Feduschak, UJE’s communications director and a reading by Makhno, in Ukrainian, of an excerpt from his award-winning novel. Dr. Mark Andryczyk will read an English-language translation of the excerpt and will moderate the discussion.

Vasyl Makhno is a Ukrainian poet, writer, playwright, and essayist who recently participated in a unique literary residency in Agnon’s hometown Buchach and contributed to the volume “Light on the Hills” in which he describes his acquaintance with Agnon’s work (and his meeting with Emuna Yaron, Agnon’s daughter). Makhno is the author of thirteen collections of poetry, including Winter Letters and Other Poems and, most recently, Poet, the Ocean and Fish. He has also published the novel The Eternal Calendar and books of essays and literary criticism. His books have been published in Germany, Israel, Poland, Romania, Serbia and the US. The Eternal Calendar was the winner of the 2020 “Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize™”.

Andrei Kurkov, Ukraine’s most widely translated author, has published over 20 novels, including the bestselling Death and the Penguin, ten books for children, and about 20 documentary, fiction and TV movie scripts. His most recent novel to appear in English is Grey Bees, a timely and imaginative look at the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict, told thought the prism of the author’s signature surrealistic humor. Kurkov is President of PEN Ukraine, a branch of the worldwide association of writers, founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere.

For more information and to register for the event click here.

Watch live on YouTube below on October 14.