Iryna Dmytrychyn has become the Laureate of the 2022 Drahomán Prize

Iryna Dmytrychyn has won the Drahomán Prize 2022, which has been awarded annually since 2020 to translators from Ukrainian into other languages.

The winner of the Award founded by the Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine and the Ukrainian Book Institute was announced at the ceremony on 26 September, in Gdansk, Poland, in cooperation with the Wolne Słowo Gdańsk Miasto Literatury project, Kolegium Europy Wschodniej, Stowarzyszenie autorów ZAiKS, Polsko-Amerykańska Fundacja Wolności, Liderzy Przemian Fundacja, and the Study Tours to Poland Programme.

Iryna Dmytrychyn is a translator from Ukrainian into French, an author of numerous publications on Ukrainian literature and history. She is responsible for Ukrainian studies at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. Iryna manages the projects promoting Ukraine, its culture and history in Western Europe. Nominated with a translation of the novel by Serhiy Zhadan The Orphanage (Les Édition Noir sur Blanc, 2022).

"I love, respect, and admire all the authors I have translated. But I am exceptionally delighted to receive the award specifically for Serhiy Zhadan’s The Orphanage. It is one of those iconic works that represents Ukraine and enables foreigners to attempt to understand what is happening here, why, and how we should proceed. And we will proceed, because, according to Zhadan, tomorrow we will wake up one day closer to our victory," said Iryna Dmytrychyn.

The award was presented to the Laureate by the Consul of Ukraine in Gdańsk, Oleksandr Plodystyi.

"The profession of a translator, in my opinion, is very complicated. Because they are the ambassadors of Ukraine; through translators, Ukrainian literature reaches the world. It is through them that the world gets to know our classics of the past and present. We thank the laureates and everyone who contributes to this work," said the Consul.

"This is a challenging endeavor - to promote Ukrainian studies in France, a country whose academic environment is accustomed to viewing the region of Central and Eastern Europe through a Russian prism. Truly, Irina's work is invaluable for the Ukrainian state and the assertion of the Ukrainian voice on the world stage," noted Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General of the Ukrainian Institute.

The ceremony in Gdansk was hosted by Maria Górska while Ukrainian musician and composer Gordiy Starukh performed the music accompaniment.

On behalf of the Mayor of Gdansk, Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, Andrzej Stelmasiewicz, chairman of the Culture and Promotion Committee in the Gdańsk City Council, spoke.

"Gdansk is a city that has long been an ally of the free Ukraine. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, Gdansk has welcomed 100,000 Ukrainians. We realize that the war continues, and until it ends, we will continue to show solidarity, brotherhood, and sisterhood with Ukraine," said Andrzej Stelmasiewicz.

The Drahomán Prize laureate, Iryna Dmytryсhyn, received a statuette made by Ukrainian sculptor Anna Zvyagintseva and a €3,000 prize. Dmytrychyn expressed her desire to divide her financial reward into three parts and allocate them to support initiatives by Serhiy Zhadan for Ukraine, the Kult.Podcast project on culture, literature, and the literary studies by Tetyana Ogarkova, and philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko, as well as initiatives and projects of PEN Ukraine.

Giovanna Brogi (Italy), a translator from Ukrainian into Italian and a researcher of Central and Eastern European literature, has become a holder of the Special Award "for the special contribution to the translation and promotion of Ukrainian literature, as well as to the development of Ukrainian studies in Italy".

Also during the ceremony, Tetyana Teren, the executive director of PEN Ukraine, mentioned the names of seven Ukrainian translators who died defending the country since February 2022 — Denys Antipov, Yevhen Hulevych, Illia Chernilevskyi, Oleh Klyufas, Kostiantyn Starovytskyi, Serhii Zaikovskyi, Oleksandr Kysliuk.

The shortlist for the 2022 Drahomán Prize also included Ukrainian-to-English translator Mark Andryczyk (nominated for his translation of Volodymyr Rafeyenko's Mondegreen: Songs of Death and Love) and Rayna Kamberova, a translator from Ukrainian into Bulgarian, who was nominated for her translation of the novel Cult by Lyubko Deresh.

For the 2022 edition of the Drahomán Prize, 15 translators from 14 countries were nominated (Bulgaria, Brazil, the UK, Armenia, Georgia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, the United States, Finland, France). Most of the nominations were submitted by Ukraine's diplomatic missions around the world and foreign publishing houses.

The Drahomán Prize was established in 2020 by the Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine, and the Ukrainian Book Institute. The award aims to support and recognise the committed work of translators from Ukrainian into world languages. The Drahomán Prize is awarded for excellence in translation and contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian literature abroad.

The winners of the Prize in previous years were Bohdan Zadura (2021), a translator from Ukrainian into Polish, writer and literary scholar and Claudia Dathe (2020), a translator from Ukrainian into German.

The Chapter of the Prize for 2022 are: Volodymyr Sheiko, Director General of the Ukrainian Institute; Volodymyr Yermolenko, writer, journalist, philosopher, President of PEN Ukraine; Oleksandra Koval, Director of the Ukrainian Book Institute; Ola Hnatiuk, researcher, professor of NaUKMA and the University of Warsaw; Ostap Slyvynsky, poet, translator, Vice President of PEN Ukraine; Valentyna Stukalova, Manager of Book and Intellectual Projects at the Institute of France in Ukraine; Yurii Prokhasko, translator; Marko-Robert Stech, Ukrainian and Canadian literary scholar and writer; and Iryna Starovoyt, literary scholar, poet, translator.

As part of the Drahomán Prize 2022, a discussion "The specific nature of the work and environment of translators" was held on 28 September at 18.00, which can be viewed here. On 29 September, at 18:00, an online meeting with the finalists of the Prize "Decolonization vs globalization" took place, you can watch the video here.

Media partner – Suspilne.

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Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Our mission is to strengthen Ukraine's international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. We facilitate international connections between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

PEN Ukraine is a cultural and human rights NGO uniting Ukrainian intellectuals – writers, journalists, scholars, publishers, translators, human rights defenders, culture managers. With 154 members, it is one of 146 national centers of PEN International. It is a co-founder of the Vasyl Stus Prize, the Yuri Shevelyov Prize, and the George Gongadze Prize.

Ukrainian Book Institute is a government entity affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Its mission is to develop state policy in the book sector, promote book reading in Ukraine, support book publishing, encourage translation activity, and popularize Ukrainian literature abroad.

Gdansk City of Literature is a program that aims to support, develop, research, document and comment on Gdansk literary creativity, both in a historical and contemporary perspective. An important element of the program is the Free Word (Wolne Słowo) project devoted to international cooperation in the field of contemporary culture, with a special Gdańsk solidarity signal to writers, artists and creators from Ukraine affected by the war unleashed by Russia.

College of Eastern Europe (Kolegium Europy Wschodniej) was founded in February 2001 by Jan Nowak-Jeziorański, a democratic activist, the legendary "Courier from Warsaw", the long-time director of the Polish section of Radio Free Europe and the former vice president of the Polish-American Congress. The College of Eastern Europe is a non-profit, non-partisan organization based in Wroclaw.