Jews in Ukrainian Literature: Representation and Identity, Yale University Press, 2009 by Myroslav Shkandrij has been short-listed for the prestigious Kobzar Literary Award. 

This pioneering study is the first to show how Jews have been seen through modern Ukrainian literature. Shkandrij uses evidence found within that literature to challenge the established view that the Ukrainian and Jewish communities were antagonistic toward one another and interacted only when compelled to do so by economic necessity.

Jews in Ukrainian Literature synthesizes recent research in the West and in the Ukraine, where access to Soviet-era literature has become possible only in the recent, post-independence period. Many of the works discussed are either little-known or unknown in the West. By demonstrating how Ukrainians have imagined their historical encounters with Jews in different ways over the decades, this account also shows how the Jewish presence has contributed to the acceptance of cultural diversity within contemporary Ukraine.

(Yale UP)

The Kobzar Literary Award was created to foster cultural development through the literary arts and to create opportunities for all Canadian writers to explore Ukrainian Canadian themes. Presented every two years, the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award recognizes a Canadian writer who best presents a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit. (Canadian News Wire)

The winner will be announced at a ceremony March 1, 2012 in Toronto.   Jurors are Denise Chong, Randall Maggs, Nino Ricci and M.G. Vassanji.

Presented by the Shevchenko Foundation.