Ukrainian writer Kateryna Babkina won the Angelus Central European Literature Award, presented annually in Wroclaw, Poland. She became the fourth Ukrainian winner of the award since its establishment in 2006 and the first to win the main award and the Audience Choice at the same time.
Her 2019 book My grandfather danced better than anyone else is a series of 12 short stories that form a single story of five families whose children meet on the first day of school in the first year of Ukraine's independence and remain friends for their whole lives.
“From the 1920s in Kharkiv and the destruction of the Les Kurbas Theater, through the Holodomor, World War II, the 1990s and several waves of emigration to the war in Donbas. This book is primarily about accepting the past. About how events and circumstances affect us regardless we know about them or not. About the longevity and connection of generations, the desire for love and acceptance, loneliness as a consequence or as a cause… But, most importantly, that even a lonely, rejected, broken person can also survive and live, because, in spite of everything, there is always the opportunity to become happy in the end,” one of the leading Ukrainian literary magazines Chytomo describes the book.
The Angelus award is presented annually for the best prose book published in the Polish language. The winner can be a writer from one of 22 (mostly) Central European states, namely Austria, Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Moldova, Germany, Poland, Russia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Ukraine, Croatia, Czech Republic, and Montenegro.
The organizer and founder of the award is the city of Wroclaw. This year the prize was awarded on 16 October during the Bruno Schulz Festival, an annual literary Festival dedicated to the renowned Polish writer Bruno Schulz (1892-1942).
The ANGELUS Central European Literature Award is directly connected to the centuries-long tradition of Wroclaw as a city of meetings and dialogue, the official description of the awards says. Due to its history and location, Wroclaw has always stood as a place where various nations, cultures, and intellectual currents have overlapped. The award is presented on an annual basis to writers from Central Europe whose works undertake themes the most relevant to the present day, encourage reflection and expand the knowledge of other cultures.
“Sometimes the opinion of experts accords with the opinion of readers. Subsequently, two awards for Kateryna Babkina,” Riabchuk wrote about rare peculiarity of this year awarding.The Angelus awarding ceremony was broadcasted online and happened together with the awarding of the Silesius Poetry Award.
Read also:
- The rebirth of Ukrainian literature and publishing: famous contemporary authors and new policy for their support
- Translate Ukraine: new grant programs open Ukrainian literature to the world
- For the first time, Ukraine will sponsor translations of Ukrainian literature to foreign languages
- “Rebellious pagan” Ukrainian poet Antonych receives English translation
- Ukraine adopts law expanding scope of Ukrainian language
- Liberal nationalism is the cure Ukraine needs to treat its post-colonial scars – Mykola Riabchuk
- Oksana Zabuzhko: Ukraine is at the forefront of a huge world battle that will transform humanity
- Serhiy Zhadan on the war with Russia & Zelenskyy’s promises
- Serhiy Zhadan: No one can protect his country by accepting conditions dictated by the invader
- Ukraine’s 30: prominent Ukrainians who changed the country and the world. Part 3: Literature
