The Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko is pleased to announce the shortlisted titles for the 2024 KOBZAR™ Book Award.
Presented every other year, the $25,000 KOBZAR™ Book Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts by authors who write on a topic with a tangible connection to Ukrainian Canadians. As the Ukrainian community celebrates over 130 years in Canada, and the Ukrainian people are in a fight for their homeland, Ukrainian stories have no bounds. This year’s KOBZAR™Book Award entries showcase titles which highlight issues that impact Ukrainians as a people in Canada.
The books include a variety of genres including young adult, graphic novel, literary fiction, non-fiction and academic.
Distinctive to this Award is monetary recognition for both the winner and the winner’s publisher.
This year’s jury is composed of Kate Edwards (former Executive Director, Association of Canadian Publishers), Carol Holmes (former Executive Director, Writers’ Guild of Alberta), and Maria Reva (author and winner of the KOBZAR™Book Award 2022). Our jury is thrilled to highlight these diverse titles which all recognize the equally diverse Ukrainian Canadian experience.
The shortlisted titles for the 2024 KOBZAR™ Book Award are:
- Five Stalks of Grain by Adrian Lysenko, illustrated by Ivanka Theodosia Galadza (University of Calgary Press)
- Ghosts in a Photograph by Myrna Kostash (NeWest Press)
- The Taste of Hunger by Barbara Joan Scott (Freehand Books)
- Ukrainian Ritual on the Prairies by Natalie Kononenko (McGill-Queen’s University Press)
- Valley of the Birdtail by Andrew Stobo Sniderman and Douglas Sanderson (AMO BINASHII) (HarperCollins Publishers)
- Winterkill by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Scholastic Press)
The 2024 KOBZAR Book Award presentation will take place on March 21, 2024, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.
For more on the Award visit www.kobzarbookaward.com.