Shevchenko Foundation Funds Writer’s Scholarship and Faculty Position

By Oksana Zakydalsky

Through a partnership with the Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko, Humber College’s School for Writers Summer Workshop in Toronto welcomed Helen Pretulak as a scholarship student and writer/author Marsha Skrypuch as a faculty member.  In 2005, the Shevchenko Foundation established the $25,000 biennial Kobzar Literary Award to recognize outstanding contributions to Canadian Literature through an author’s representation of a Ukrainian Canadian theme. Additionally, the Foundation funds the writer’s scholarship and a faculty position during the Humber Writers’ Workshop. Kobzar Literary Award program director Dr. Christine Turkewych maintains, “In the process of rewarding published authors, our vision expanded to assist Canadian writers in developing their advanced manuscripts on a Ukrainian Canadian theme to a publishable stage.”  This year, the Foundation funded one faculty position and one scholarship at the weeklong program at Humber College, July 14-20, 2007. This instructional workshop included readings and commentary on a writer’s work in progress under the guidance of a reputable author.

Marsha Skrypuch has been a professional writer since 1988, and is the author of several children’s and young people’s fiction books, many dealing with historical and current issues. Silver Threads is a story that takes place in the Canadian Prairies during WWI and deals with the internment of Ukrainians; Enough is set in the 1930’s during the Holodomor Famine in Ukraine. Hope’s War, for young people, tells the story of a high school girl whose grandfather is accused of being a war criminal. Most of Skrypuch’s books are available in mainstream bookstores and have been nominated for various book awards. Her latest publication is Kobzar’s Children: A Century of Untold Ukrainian Stories, published in 2006. It is an anthology of historical fiction, memoirs and poems written about the Ukrainian immigrant experience, spanning a time period from the internment to the Orange Revolution.  “ Marsha’s prolific writing career and experience with Ukrainian Canadian themes made her the perfect candidate to mentor and guide writers who had committed to pursuing these themes,” continues Dr. Turkewych.

The Kobzar Writer’s Scholarship, is a full scholarship for attending the Humber Writers’ Workshop. It is offered to a writer anywhere in Canada who has an advanced manuscript on a Ukrainian Canadian theme and wants to prepare it for publication. The recipient of the 2007 scholarship was Helen Pretulak of Prince Edward Island who is working on a novel that tackles the issue of Chornobyl.

Her story begins in the Soviet era, when a young Ukrainian Canadian goes to Ukraine to meet his mother’s relatives. Being a member of the Labour Temple community – the Ukrainian Canadian community that maintained contact with the Communist regime in Soviet Ukraine - he is granted a visa to study at Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, Ukraine. However, seeing the real Soviet society makes him question many of the things he had learned about Communism at the Labour Temple Saturday School. He meets a girl whom he marries and brings back to Canada. In the next few years, he travels to Ukraine several times at the invitation of Ukraine’s Ministry of Education to advise on new technology and is there in 1986 when the Chornobyl disaster occurs. He returns to Ukraine with his wife in 1990 to find out what happened to her family and her brother, who had worked at the Chornobyl nuclear plant.

Pretulak evaluates her stay at the Writers’ Workshop very positively – she was pleased with both the opportunity to learn and the feedback from the faculty and other students on her work. For example, she said that Skrypuch advised her not to include history outside of her characters’ experience. “This was excellent advice and I have revised my manuscript accordingly,” stated Pretulak.

The roster of faculty members who addressed the student groups also impressed her. This year they included Wayson Choy, Alistair MacLeod, Nino Ricci, Miriam Toews, Guy Vanderhaeghe – all established well-known authors. She said that “they echoed advice Marsha had given me: kill your ‘darlings’. If something is not essential, no matter how great the writer believes it is, how creative or brilliant – take it out. And if you must have it there, put it in. Then take it out! I have combed my MS [manuscript] for these little ‘darlings’ (mostly historical tidbits) and have so far trimmed my 327 page manuscript by 5 pages”.

Former students who have published in the previous year told the students how they went from aspiring to published writer status. Pretulak was astonished to learn of the tenacity of former students who have managed to get published. She gave the example of Vincent Lam, winner of the 2006 Giller Prize. “He stressed that determination, dedication and a belief in what you are doing are necessary for success. He is a doctor in the emergency room of a busy Toronto hospital, yet he found time to write. It made me believe that if I keep writing and rewriting, I can be published,” exclaimed Pretulak.

Pretulak said that she was grateful that the Kobzar scholarship gave her the opportunity to attend the Workshop. “I can’t help wondering where I would be in terms of progress, where and to whom I could turn to for help had I not attended the Writers’ Workshop and had I not received guidance from Marsha Skrypuch. As a result of being in her class, I have joined her group of writers online and am sending in a chapter at a time for feedback”, said Pretulak.

“It is our goal to increase the number of scholarships offered at Humber so that more writers will advance their manuscripts on Ukrainian Canadian themes and achieve greater success in the literary world”, concluded Dr. Christine Turkewych.

Information on submission conditions and deadlines can be found on www.kobzarliteraryaward.com