On August 18, members of the Honors Chapter announced the short list of nominees for the 2021 Drahomán Prize for translators from Ukrainian to world languages.

The finalists of the Award are:

• Alessandro Achilli (Italy) – a translator from Italian to Ukrainian. Senior assistant at the Department of Slavic Languages ​​and Literatures of the University of Cagliari (Italy), a researcher of modern Ukrainian literature with particular attention to poetry and cultural history. He was nominated for the Award with a translation into Italian of Markiyan Kamysh's novel "Oformland: A Stroll to the Zone" (Keller editore publishing house).
• Iryna Dmytryshyn (France) is a translator from French to Ukrainian. Author of numerous publications on Ukrainian literature and history. She is responsible for Ukrainian studies at the National Institute of Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. She was nominated for the Award with a French translation of Yuri Andrukhovych's novel "The Lexicon of Intimate Cities" (Noir sur Blanc publishing house).
• Bohdan Zadura (Poland) is a translator from Polish into Ukrainian, a writer and a literary critic. The author of twenty-five books of poetry and more than a dozen volumes of essays and prose. Long-term editor of Akcent quarterly journal, since 2004 - editor-in-chief of Twórczości monthly literary journal. Nominated for the award with translations into Polish of Kateryna Babkina's works "My grandfather danced better than everyone else" (Warsztaty Kultury publishing house), Vasyl Makhno's "Eternal Calendar" (Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy publishing house) and Yuriy Wynnychuk's "Lyutetsia" (Warstwy publishing house).

Applications for the 2021 Drahomán Prize closed on November 30, 2021. On the long list of the Drahomán Prize, 20 translators were included. Most of the nominees are translators who translate from Ukrainian to Polish and Italian. Also on the long list were translators into German, Belarusian, Romanian, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Hungarian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Macedonian and Hebrew.

Applications came from 15 countries, including Italy, Belarus, Romania, Austria, the Netherlands, Brazil, Poland, France, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Latvia, North Macedonia and the Czech Republic. Diplomatic missions of Ukraine in various countries of the world and foreign publishing houses submitted the most applications.

According to the terms of the Prize, the Prize Chapter announces the finalists of the Drahomán Prize in March. The laureate award ceremony takes place in April. Due to the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine, the announcement of the list of finalists was postponed to August. The awarding ceremony of the laureate will take place in October. This year, it will be held abroad for the first time at the Literaturhaus Berlin – the first house of literature in Germany, a cultural and educational institution dedicated to popularizing world literature, making it accessible to the general public through modern formats. 

We want to remind you that the Drahomán Prize was founded in 2020 by the Ukrainian Institute, the Ukrainian PEN and the Ukrainian Book Institute. The Award is designed to support and celebrate the collaborative work of translators from Ukrainian into world languages. The Drahomán Prize is awarded for high translation skills and contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian literature abroad.

The short list and the laureate of the Prize are determined by the Chapter, which consists of 9 members. It includes representatives of founding organizations, as well as authoritative writers, translators, linguists and literary critics, and cultural managers. 

The Chapter of the 2021 Prize included: Andriy Kurkov, writer and president of Ukrainian PEN; Volodymyr Sheiko, the first general director of the Ukrainian Institute; Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute; Ola Hnatyuk, researcher, professor of the National Academy of Medical Sciences and the University of Warsaw, vice-president of the Ukrainian PEN; Ostap Slyvynsky, poet and translator; Valentina Stukalova, manager of book and intellectual projects of the French Institute; Yurii Prokhasko, translator; Marko Robert Stech, Ukrainian and Canadian literary critic and writer; Iryna Starovoyt, literary critic, poet, translator.

The Prize laureate receives a statuette made by a famous Ukrainian sculptor, a monetary reward of 3,000 Euros, as well as additional opportunities for work and promotion of his work.

The first laureate of the Award for 2020 was the German translator Claudia Date. She was nominated with translations into German of Serhiy Zhadan "Antenna" (published by Suhrkamp) and Oleksii Chupa's novel "Tales of My Bomb Shelter" (published by Haymon Verlag)., she received the Chapter's Special Award "for high translation skills and promotion of Ukrainian classical literature". Imadeddin Raef, a Ukrainian-to-Arabic translator who was also nominated for the Drahomán Prize by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Lebanon for her translation of "Beirut Stories" by Agathangel Krymsky.

***

Ukrainian Institute is a state institution under the management of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The Ukrainian Institute's mission is to strengthen Ukraine's international and domestic subjectivity through cultural diplomacy. We establish international cultural ties between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukrainians to interact with the world.

Ukrainian PEN is a cultural and human rights public organization that unites Ukrainian intellectuals - writers, journalists, scientists, publishers, translators, human rights defenders, cultural managers. It has 150 members and is one of the 146 national centers of the International PEN. It has co-founded The Vasyl Stus, Yuri Shevelyov and George Gongadze Awards.

Ukrainian Institute of Books is a state institution under the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, which is designed to formulate state policy in the book industry, promote book reading in Ukraine, support book publishing, stimulate translation activities, and popularize Ukrainian literature abroad.