Ukrainian Canadian Themes Creatively Presented in Kobzar Literary Award 2010 Shortlist

By Oksana Zakydalsky

The prcis-review of book titles short listed for the 2010 Kobzar Literary Award continues from the previous The New Pathway, Issue 2, in which appeared Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems by Randall Maggs and Zo by Murray Andrew Pura.

The following remaining book titles have been nominated and  short listed for the 2010 Kobzar Literary Award.

 Redemption and Ritual

The Kobzar shortlist title in religious history is that of a very unique religious community. Redemption and Ritual (The  Eastern Rite Redemptorists of North America 1906-2006) is written by Paul Laverdure, author of several works in Canadian religious history, who is currently the Director of Library Services for the University of Sudbury, Ontario.

The Redemptorists, a missionary order founded in Europe, have been present in Canada since 1834. Between 1897 and 1913, the Roman Catholic Church of Canada faced a new situation when an increasing number of Ukrainian speaking, Eastern Rite Catholics arrived in Western Canada. Belgian Redemptorists were sent west to Brandon, Manitoba to serve the spiritual and religious needs of these Eastern Catholics. But the rush of immigrants, who spoke neither English nor French, overwhelmed the Brandon Redemptorists, who quickly realized that the Eastern Catholic immigrants would have to be approached through their own ritual and their own language.

The Belgian Redemptorists proved to be true missionaries: they understood how one had to get to the people rather than make the people to come to them. The Belgians learned the Ukrainian language and Liturgy, adapted themselves to the Julian calendar, went to Galicia for training and learned how to be both Catholic and Eastern.

The Eastern Rite Redemptorists’ main activity is in Saskatchewan and to a lesser extent in Manitoba, the significance of which is stated in the book:  “The Yorkton Province of Redemptorists comprised almost all Byzantine Rite Redemptorists outside of Eastern Europe during the years of the Soviet Union. Although the number of men,  priests and brothers involved was and is very small, it’s impact on religion among Eastern European Catholic immigrants outside the Soviet Union was immense, sometimes unsurpassed by any other religious organization, whether Catholic or otherwise.”

With its stories, anecdotes and biographies of very unique individuals, Redemption and Ritual holds the reader’s attention and, in spite of its exhaustive and sometimes exhausting detail, the narrative flows well.

God of Missed Connections

Elizabeth Bachinsky, author of God of Missed Connections, lives in Vancouver. This is her third collection of poems. In the postscript to the poems, the author explains their inspiration: “... people of my generation... are cultural insiders and outsiders: inside because our experiences have been drawn from a distinct, albeit particularly dispersed, cultural milieu within Canada, and outside because we have little or no direct experience of life in Ukraine...” In her poems, Bachinsky “wanted to capture the sense of what it feels like to not know where you’re from, to be looking for connections.”

The collection’s lyric poems seek these connections by confronting, not only a sweep of history, but also by considering separate “histories”. Some are family stories – immigrant anxiety, learning Ukrainian dances, Baba’s funeral. Others are rituals in which the poet searches for origin and meaning – the wax pouring ceremony, a Hutzul Wedding, folk musical instruments. However, complex historical events, uniquely Ukrainian, also need to be understood – Holodomor, Chornobyl, Ukrainian Canadian Internment. This collection of poems will probably speak most directly to persons of the poet’s generation, whose own “search for identity” might include similar questioning.

Authors and book titles nominated and short listed for 2010 Kobzar Literary Award:

• Randall Maggs, Night Work: The Sawchuk Poems, 187 p., Brick Books, London, Ont., Canada

• Murray Andrew Pura, Zo, 151 p. Windhover Marsh, Toronto, Ont., Canada

• Paul Laverdure, Redemption and Ritual, 423 p., Redeemer’s Voice Press, Yorkton, Sask., Canada

• Elizabeth Bachinsky, God of Missed Connections, 80 p., Nightwood Editions, Gibsons, BC, Canada