Kobzar Award Shortlist Announced

The Board of Directors of the Shevchenko Foundation on January 16 announced the first Kobzar Literary Award 2006 shortlist.  To be presented biennially, the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award recognizes a Canadian writer who best presents a Ukrainian-Canadian theme with literary merit through poetry, play, screenplay, musical, fiction, non-fiction or young people’s literature.

The four finalists are:

Lisa Grekul for Kalyna’s Song, published by Coteau Books.

Kalyna’s Song is a coming-of-age novel set in Alberta and Africa. Colleen Lutzak is a good student with musical talent.  Her cousin Kalyna, with whom Colleen shares the same name (but in different languages) is strange, but she loves Colleen’s music dearly, and this brings out Colleen’s protective instincts. When Colleen’s beloved music teacher dies and Colleen has a miserable time at university in Edmonton, she decides to go to Swaziland. There, a final tragedy forces Colleen to face adult decisions about her identity and purpose in life.

Lisa Grekul teaches Canadian literature in the Department of Critical Studies at the University of British Columbia–Okanagan. Originally from St. Paul, Alberta, she worked as a musician and attended school in Swaziland. Kalyna’s Song was shortlisted for the Amazon.ca/Books in Canada Best First Book Award. She is the author of the recently published Leaving Shadows: Literature in English by Canada’s Ukrainians.


    Laura Langston for Lesia’s Dream, published by Harper Collins Publishers Ltd.

The Magus family, threatened by rumous of war, taxed and persecuted by their Austrian rulers, and worn down by poverty, flees to Canada. They hope their 160 acres of uncleared prairie land will produce wealth, security—and respect.  Far away from the fighting, the family is nevertheless affected by the First World War. Declared enemies of Canada, Lesia’s father and brother are shipped off to an internment camp, leaving Lesia, her pregnant mother and her little sister to survive the winter alone in their sod hut on the prairie.

Laura Langston, based in Victoria, British Columbia, is the author of several books for children and adults. No Such Thing As Far Away was a Children’s Choice pick by the Canadian Children’s Book Centre; The Fox’s Kettle was nominated for a Governor General’s Award for Illustration; and Pay Dirt!, her non-fiction book for young readers, was nominated for the Red Cedar and Silver Birch awards.

 

    Danny Schur for Strike! - The Musical, script by Danny Schur and Rick Chafe, lyrics and music by Danny Schur.

The 1919 General Strike put Winnipeg to a halt for six weeks. The strike took place in a climate of zenophobia and discrimination directed towards the immigrants of Winnipeg’s North End, of which Ukrainians were so much a part. This is the setting of Schur’s musical, which tells the story of a Ukrainian-Canadian everyman, Mike Sokolowski, who finds himself at the epicentre of the labour uprising,

Winnipeg’s Danny Schur was raised in Ethelbert, Manitoba. He studied composition at the University of Manitoba, and composed/produced his first musical, The Bridge, commissioned to celebrate centenary of Ukrainians in Canada. Danny’s third musical, Strike!, premiered in Winnipeg in 2005 and will open the 2006 season at Saskatoon’s Persephone Theatre in September. His collaborator, Rick Chafe, is a Winnipeg playwright and dramaturge. He worked with Danny Schur on the final production-ready version of the script for Strike!

    Larry Warwaruk for Andrei and the Snow Walker, published by Coteau Books.

In search of a better life, 12-year-old Andrei and his family move from Ukraine to a homestead near  Batoche, Saskatchewan, in 1900. Andrei’s grandfather brings with them a magical Scythian bowl. Andrei helps on the homestead and learns to hunt with two Mtis friends. They tell him about Snow Walker, a man of unusual powers and wisdom who, some say, can change into a bear. One winter, Andrei is caught in a blizzard while clutching the magical bowl. When he falls through ice on the river, he realizes he must let go of the bowl to survive. After someone pulls him from the river, Andrei learns that his new land has its own wisdom and power.

Larry Warwaruk is the author of The Ukrainian Wedding and Rope of Time and the non-fiction book Red Finns of the Coteau as well as a number of short stories. He is the general editor of Sundog Highway: Writing from Saskatchewan, Coteau’s anthology of Saskatchewan literature. Born in Regina,  The Saskatchewan-born Warwaruk studied at the universities of Regina and Oregon and was a teacher and principal in central Saskatchewan.