The long list announced for the 2025 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 the winner for her novel Amadoka (Lviv: The Old Lion Publishing House, 2020). The winner in the fourth year of the prize in 2024, in the category of nonfiction, was Yuriy Skira for his book, Solid. The Life-Saving Footwear Factory (Lviv: Choven Publishing House, 2023).

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 2025 Encounter prize, nominated in the fiction category, for books published in 2023–2024.

Anatoly Dimarov, Jewish Stories. Confession of an Informant (Kharkiv: Folio Publishing House, 2023)
Anatoliy Dimarov, Yevreysʹki istoriyi. Spovidʹ stukacha (Kharkiv: TOV Vydavnytstvo Folio, 2023)

Tais Zolotkovska, Line of Effort (Chernivtsi: Publishing House Books – XXI, 2024)
Tais Zolotkovsʹka, Liniya zusyllya (Chernivtsi: Vydavnytstvo Knyhy – XXI, 2024)

Sonya Kapinus, White Rabbits (Kyiv: Publishing House ORLANDO, 2024)
Sonya Kapynus, Bili Krolyky (Kyiv: Vydavnychyy dim ORLANDO, 2024)

Mia Marchenko, Kateryna Pekur, Children of the Burning Time (Kharkiv Readberry, 2024)
Miya Marchenko, Kateryna Pekur, Dity vohnennoho chasu (Kharkiv: Readberry, 2024)

Isaac Leib Peretz, Hasidic, (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2024)
Yitskhok Leybesh Perets, Khasydsʹke (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2024)

Gregor von Rezzori, An Ermine in Czernopol (Chernivtsi: Publishing House Books – XXI, 2024)
Gregor fon Retstsori, Hornostay u Chornopoli (Chernivtsi: Vydavnytstvo Knyhy – XXI, 2024)

Khrystyna Semeryn (Editor), Centuries of Presence. The Jewish World in Ukrainian Short Prose of the 1880s–1930s (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2024)
Khrystyna Semeryn (Uporyadnytsya), Stolittya prysutnosti. Yevreysʹkyy svit v ukrayinsʹkiy korotkiy prozi 1880-kh–1930-kh (Kyiv: Dukh i Litera, 2024)

Lyudmila Taran, Scandal (Kyiv: Vikhola, 2023)
Lyudmyla Taran, Skandal (Kyiv: Vikhola, 2023)

Eli Schechtman, Ringen oyf der Neshome (Rings on the Soul) (Lviv: Apriori Publishing House, 2023)
Eli Schechtman, Goyrl. Kilʹtsya na dushi (Lviv: Vydavnytstvo Apriori, 2023)

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 2025 Lviv Book Forum.

The international jury for the 2025 Encounter prize is comprised of:

Ostap Slyvynsky (Ukraine/Jury Head)
Ostap Slyvynsky is a celebrated Ukrainian poet, translator, essayist, and scholar. He has authored five books of poetry, including Winter King (2018), and A Dictionary of War (2023), a documentary book based on testimonies of witnesses of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. His poetry has been published internationally, and Winter King was recently shortlisted for the American Translation Prize and the Derek Walcott Prize. He was awarded the Antonych Literary Prize (1997), the Hubert Burda Prize for young poets from Eastern Europe (2009), and the Kovaliv Fund Prize (2013). His works have been translated into more than 20 languages. He translates fiction and scholarly literature from English, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Polish. Slyvynsky is also a professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University (Lviv) and member of PEN Ukraine.

Maria Genkin (United States/Jury Member)
Born and raised in Lviv, Maria Genkin moved to the United States to attend university. In 2020, she joined the board of Razom for Ukraine, a U.S.-based non-profit organization dedicated to fostering a secure and democratic Ukraine. An avid reader, she spearheaded Razom Literature, a program aimed at enhancing the visibility of Ukrainian literature in the English-speaking world by cultivating relationships with publishers, translators, booksellers, and readers. Each year, Razom Literature provides select grants to support the promotion of books by Ukrainian authors or to cover translation costs. Razom Literature was launched as a continuation of another organizational initiative, the Razom Book Club, which she manages. Genkin regularly moderates book events and lives in New York City with her family.

Volodymyr Yeshkilev (Ukraine/Jury Member)
Volodymyr Yeshkilev is a well-known Ukrainian prose writer, screenwriter, playwright, and publicist. Among Yeshkilev's seventeen published novels are the conspiracy saga, Situation "Zero", a trilogy about the times of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi and the Ruin — Union, Cain, Malh, and the story of the young years of Hryhorii Skovoroda, Androgyn (All Corners of the Triangle). He is also known to the Ukrainian reader as a publicist and blogger, author of cultural articles and essays. In 2022, the full-length feature film Pattern, based on his novel of the same name, was released. His novel Cain became the winner of the national book rating "Book of the Year 2020" in the "Genre Literature" nomination.