Video: Award presentation and discussion with the winner of the 2021 'Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize'™
Award presentation and discussion with the winner of the 2021 'Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize’™ Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, 4 November 2021
The Canadian charitable non-profit organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter and the NGO Publishers' Forum (Lviv, Ukraine) presented Yohanan Petrovsky Stern, winner of the 2021 'Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize' ™ with the award statue on 4 November 2021 during an online event.
Petrovsky-Stern was announced the winner of the 'Encounter' prize on 15 September 2021 at the opening ceremony of the 28th BookForum in Lviv. The Ukrainian-language translation of his book, The Anti-Imperial Choice: The Making of the Ukrainian Jew, published by the Kyiv publishing house Krytyka in 2018, won the second 'Encounter' prize (in the nonfiction category).
Founded in 2019, the 'Encounter' prize aims to build on the common experiences of Ukrainians and Jews over the centuries, expressed in literature and nonfiction. The prize is awarded annually to the most influential work in literature and nonfiction (in alternate years) that fosters Ukrainian-Jewish understanding, helping solidify Ukraine's place as a multi-ethnic society and giving truth to the motto, "Our stories are incomplete without each other".
The online event on 4 November 2021 was attended by:
Yohanan Petrovsky-Stern, Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of History, Northwestern University, historian, literary critic, translator, artist
George G. Grabowicz, Dmytro Čyževs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian Literature, Harvard University, literary critic, founder and Editor-in-Chief of Krytyka magazine, Vice President of the Shevchenko Scientific Society
Andriy Mokrousov, Director, Krytyka publishing house
Natalia A. Feduschak, Director of Communications, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter
Orysia Hrudka, Communications Manager, Krytyka, book reviewer and journalist
The moderator of the event was historian and translator Andriy Pavlyshyn.
Vasyl Makhno was the first winner of the 'Encounter' prize in 2020 for his novel Eternal Calendar (in the fiction category).
