On March 13, the members of the Chapter announced the shortlist of nominees for the Drahomán Prize for translators from Ukrainian into world languages for 2024.

The finalists of the award are:

• Eero Balk with a translation into Finnish of Yevhenia Kuznetsova's novel The Ladder
• Amelia Glaser and Yuliya Ilchuk with the English translation of Halyna Kruk's poetry collection A Crash Course in Molotov Cocktails
• Dariya Pavlešen and Ana Dugandžić with the Croatian translation of Yuri Andrukhovych's novel Radio Night

The Special Jury Commendation for the high professionalism and humanism in developing the Ukrainian-Lithuanian literary dialogue will be given to a translator from Ukrainian into Lithuanian, Vytautas Dekšnys.

The award ceremony of the Drahomán Prize 2024 will take place on April 23 in Kyiv. The winner of the Prize will receive a statuette by Ukrainian artist Anna Zviahintseva, a cash prize of EUR 3,000 (including taxes), as well as additional opportunities for work and promotion of his or her work.

Let us remind you, that this year’s long list of the Drahomán Prize included 20 nominees who translate from Ukrainian into Finnish, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Georgian, Lithuanian, German, Croatian, Polish, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Czech and Swedish. Applications for the Prize were received from 16 countries, namely from Bulgaria, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, Poland, Georgia, United States, Finland, Croatia, the Czech Republic and Sweden.

The Prize was founded in 2020 by the Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Book Institute. The Prize aims to support and acknowledge the enlightening work of translators from Ukrainian into other languages. The Drahomán Prize is awarded for excellence in translation and contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian literature abroad.

The short list and the laureate of the award are nominated by the Chapter of the prize, comprising 9 members. The Chapter consists of reputable translators, linguists, literary scholars, and cultural managers, as well as the director of the Ukrainian Book Institute. This year, six members of the Prize’s Board of Directors have changed, as their term of office has come to an end according to the Regulations. The 2024 Chapter members include Volodymyr Sheiko, Volodymyr Yermolenko, Oleksandra Koval, Yaroslava Strikha, Alla Tatarenko, Katarzyna Kotynska, Rory Finnin, Iryna Zabiiaka, and Sofiia Onufriv. 

The first laureate of the 2020 Prize was the German translator Claudia Dathe. Imadeddin Raef, translator from Ukrainian into Arabic, received the Special Jury Commendation “for high translation skills and promotion of Ukrainian classical literature.”

The winner of the Drahomán Prize 2021 is the Polish translator, writer, and literary critic Bohdan Zadura. Tobias Wals, translator from Ukrainian into Dutch, received the Special Jury Commendation “for his meticulous translation of the classics of Ukrainian literary modernism and contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian literature in Europe.”

In 2022, the winner of the Prize was Iryna Dmytryshyn, translator from Ukrainian into French. Giovanna Brogi, translator from Ukrainian into Italian, received the Special Jury Commendation “for her special contribution to the translation and promotion of Ukrainian literature, as well as to the development of Ukrainian studies in Italy.” Polish translator Katarzyna Kotynska was named the 2023 laureate of the Drahomán Prize, which honors translators from Ukrainian into world languages, and Raul Chilachava, translator from Ukrainian into Georgian, received the Special Jury Commendation “for building of the Ukrainian-Georgian cultural bridges.”

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Media partners of the Drahomán Prize: Suspilne Kultura, Radio Kultura, the Fifth Channel, Chytomo.

Ukrainian Institute is a government entity. Its mission is to promote Ukraine internationally and to develop deep cultural relations with other countries and nations. Since 2018, the Institute has been operating globally with its headquarters in Kyiv. In 2023, the first representative offices were opened in Europe: Berlin (Germany) and soon in Paris (France). The Ukrainian Institute operates under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

PEN Ukraine is a cultural and human rights organization that unites Ukrainian intellectuals, including writers, journalists, scholars, publishers, translators, human rights activists, cultural managers. It has more than 170 members and is one of 146 national centers of PEN International. It is a co-founder of the Vasyl Stus, Yuri Shevelov and George Gongadze Prizes.

The Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity under the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine, designed to form the state policy in the book industry, promote book reading in Ukraine, support book publishing, stimulate translation activities, and popularize Ukrainian literature abroad.