The vision of the Shevchenko Foundation for the Kobzar Literary Award is to foster cultural development in Canada through the Literary Arts and create opportunities for all Canadian writers to explore Ukrainian Canadian themes that are relevant to Canadians.

Presented biennially, the $25,000 prize ($20,000 to the author; $5,000 to the publisher) recognizes a Canadian writer who best presents a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit through poetry, drama, fiction, non-fiction, or young people's literature.

The Shevchenko Foundation, a key player in the Ukrainian Canadian community, with its mandate for heritage retention and cultural development, launched the Kobzar Literary Award at Hart House in Toronto on May 14, 2003.

With a view to providing developmental and publishing opportunities for Canadian writers in advanced stages of writing on a Ukrainian Canadian theme, scholarships and workshops are offered through institutional partnerships across the country.

In a partnership between Shevchenko Foundation and Humber College in Toronto, Humber’s annual “Summer Writer’s Workshop” in July, 2009 offers the Kobzar Writer’s Scholarship and welcomed Marsha Skrypuch as a faculty member in a week-long writer’s workshop. For more details see “Scholarships and Workshops.”

For information, contact:

Christine Turkewych PhD, Program Director
Kobzar Literary Award & Writer’s Scholarship, and Syrnick Journalism Award
Phone: (416) 243-0122
Email: christine@shevchenkofoundation.com
Site: kobzarliteraryaward.com