The long list announced for the 2024 'Encounter' prize

In December 2019, the Canadian charitable non-profit organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, in cooperation with Ukraine's NGO "Publishers Forum" (Lviv, Ukraine), announced a new initiative entitled "Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize ™."

The prize aims to build on the common experiences of Ukrainians and Jews over the centuries, expressed in the written word. It is awarded annually to the most influential work that fosters Ukrainian-Jewish understanding, helping solidify Ukraine's place as a multi-ethnic society. The ‘Encounter’ prize is awarded in two categories in alternate years: fiction (prose, poetry, and drama) and nonfiction (historical works, biographies, memoirs, journalism, essays) *.

The first ‘Encounter’ prize was awarded in September 2020 in the fiction category to Vasyl Makhno for his novel Eternal Calendar (Lviv: The Old Lion Publishing House, 2019). The second year of the award in 2021 was dedicated to the nonfiction category, with the winner being Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern for the Ukrainian-language translation of his groundbreaking work, The Anti-Imperial Choice: The Making of the Ukrainian Jew (Kyiv: Krytyka, 2018). The third year of the award was held in 2023 in the fiction category with Sofia Andrukhovych named winner for her novel Amadoka (Lviv: The Old Lion Publishing House, 2020.)

The 2022 'Encounter' prize was not awarded in connection with Russia's genocidal war against Ukraine.

*Based on the decision of the UJE Board dated 2 June 2021, books financially supported by the organization cannot be submitted for"Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize."

The Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and Ukraine’s NGO “Publishers Forum” are pleased to announce the long list for the 2024 ‘Encounter’ prize, nominated in the nonfiction category, for books published in 2021–2023.

Edvard Doks, Where Your Thoughts Are (Kyiv: Veselka Publishing House, 2021)
Edvard Doks, Tam de tvoyi dumky (Kyiv: Vydavnytsvo Veselka, 2021)

Roman Myhalchuk, Death and Survival During the Holocaust: The Terrain of Modern Rivne Region (Rivne: Vydavnytsvo Volynski Oberehy, 2022)
Roman Myhalchuk, Smert i vyzhyvanniya pid chas Holokostu: terena suchasnoyi Rivenshchyny (Rivne: Vydavnytsvo Volynski Oberehy, 2022)

Andriy Pavlyshyn, Eternity Continues to Threaten Us (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2021)
Andriy Pavlyshyn, Nam i dali zahrozhuye vichnist (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2021)

Halyna Petrosaniak, Our Neighbor Albert Hofman (Chernivtsi: Books – XXI, 2022)
Halyna Petrosaniak, Nash susid Albert Hofman (Chernivtsi: Knyhy – XXI, 2022)

Petro Rykhlo, The Plucked Strings of a Loud Lyre...": German-Jewish Poets of Bukovyna (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2023)
Petro Rykhlo, Urvani struny prehuchnoyi liry…Nimetski-yevreiski poety Bukovyny (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2023)

Phillipe Sands, The Rat Line: Love, Lies and Justice on the Trail of a Nazi Fugitive (Lviv: The Old Lion Publishing House, 2023)
Phillipe Sands, Schuryachiy laz. Kohannya, brehnya ta spravedlyvist na shliahu vtechi natsyskoho zlochynsia (Lviv: Vydavnytsvo Staroho Leva, 2023)

Evhenia Senik, Because It Hurts (Brustury: Discursus, 2023)
Evhenia Senik, Bo bolyt (Brustury: Discursus, 2023) 

Yuriy Skira, Solid. The Life-Saving Footwear Factory (Lviv: Choven Publishing House, 2023)
Yuriy Skira, Solid. Vziuteva fabrika zhyttya (Lviv: Vydavnytsvo Choven, 2023)

Yulia Stakhivska, Sonya and the Game of Colors (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2022)
Yulia Stakhivska, Sonya i hra kolioriv (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2022)

The prize is valued at 7000 Euros. The winner receives 6000 Euros, with the author/s receiving 4000 Euros and the publisher 2000 Euros. Four (4) incentive awards will receive 250 Euros each.

The award ceremony for the ‘Encounter’ prize will take place at the 2024 Lviv Book Forum.

The international jury for the 2024 'Encounter' prize is comprised of:

Olexander Scherba (Ukraine/Jury Head)
Olexander Scherba is a Ukrainian diplomat and author who worked as Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria in 2014–2021.

A native of Kyiv, he graduated from Kyiv Shevchenko University in 1993 (German and English philology) and defended his PhD dissertation in 2001. His diplomatic career included various positions both in Ukraine and across the world: Bonn, Berlin, Washington and Vienna.

He was a speechwriter to many foreign ministers and presidents of Ukraine. In September 2014, he authored Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's widely acclaimed address to the US Congress.

On 22 November 2004, the next day after the falsified presidential elections, he authored a statement of protest against the falsification of presidential elections in Ukraine. Many other diplomats co-signed the statement in what became the Orange Revolution.

Since 2008, he has contributed as a columnist to Ukraine's central weekly newspaper Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. His book Vaccination Against Darkness was published in Ukrainian in 2020. Ukraine's PEN Club included it in the year's top 15 books in the "essays" category. His next book Ukraine vs. Darkness. Undiplomatic Thoughts was published in English by the German publishing house Ibidem Press on 30 April 2021.

He currently serves as ambassador-at-large (in charge of strategic communications) at Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and maintains one of Ukraine's leading English-language X (formerly Twitter) accounts @olex_scherba.

Iuliia Bentia (Ukraine/Jury Member)
Iuliia Bentia holds a PhD in Art Studies; is a Senior Research Fellow at the Modern Art Research Institute, the National Academy of Arts of Ukraine; and Executive Editor at Krytyka journal. She is a member of the expert group of the Ukrainian Theater Festival and Award GRA. In 2022, she was awarded a non-resident scholarship for Ukrainian scholars, cultural figures, and public intellectuals from the Institute for Human Sciences (IWM, Vienna, Austria) and the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (United States) to implement the special topic Russian Invasion of Ukraine on the Krytyka website (krytyka.com). She is a co-editor of the essay project "War is... Ukrainian Writers on Living through Catastrophe", which Krytyka published in 2023 with the support of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (UJE).

Alexander J. Motyl (United States/Jury Member)
Alexander J. Motyl (Ph.D., Columbia University, 1984) is a professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark, writer, and painter. He served as associate director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in 1992-1998 and of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark in 1999-2008. He is the author of National Questions, 2022; Ukraine vs. Russia: Revolution, Democracy, and War, 2017; Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires, 2001 (Ukrainian translation, 2009; Russian translation, 2004); Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities, 1999; Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism, 1993; Sovietology, Rationality, Nationality: Coming to Grips with Nationalism in the USSR, 1990; Will the Non-Russians Rebel? State, Ethnicity, and Stability in the USSR, 1987; The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919–1929, 1980.