Long list for the 2025 Yuri Shevelyov Prize announced

Long list for the 2025 Yuri Shevelyov Prize for the best Ukrainian essay book included 13 titles.

On October 15, PEN Ukraine finished accepting applications for the 2025 Yuri Shevelyov Prize for the best Ukrainian essay book. According to the results of analysis of submitted applications for compliance with technical and genre criteria of the Prize, the Jury members announced the long list of nominees.

The long list included 13 titles:

1. Aheieva, Vira. Against Cultural Amnesia. Essays on the National Memory and Identity (Vikhola Publishing House)
2. Bitiukov, Hlib. To My Little Daughter. Dad's Notes from the War (The Old Lion Publishing House)
3. Dron, Artur. Hemingway Knows Nothing (The Old Lion Publishing House)
4. Zhuravel, Bohdan. Bukuria (Vikhola Publishing House)
5. Kari, Olha. Yours, Mine, No One’s, and Other (The Old Lion Publishing House)
6. Karpiuk, Vasyl. It's Still Summer, But Everything’s Clear (Brustury Publishing House)
7. Kolomiychuk, Bohdan. Good Premonitions (The Old Lion Publishing House)
8. Krapyvenko, Dmytro. All in Three Letters (Ukraїner Publishing House)
9. Kuleba, Dmytro; Yaroslavskyi, Volodymyr. Diplomatic Kitchen of the Wartime (Knyholove Publishing House)
10. Pinkovska, Myroslava. A Portrait in the Destiny’s Interior (Dukh-i-Litera Publishing House)
11. Chapeye, Artem. Never Born for the War (Books XXI Publishing House)
12. Chekh, Artem. A Game of Disguise (Meridian Czernowitz Publishing House)
13. Shchur, Oksana. Cassandra Is Mistaken Once (Choven Publishing House)

The Jury of the 2025 Prize included Volodymyr Yermolenko, president of PEN Ukraine (head of the Jury); Ola Hnatiuk, researcher, professor of Kyiv Mohyla Academy and Warsaw University; Oleksii Panych, philosopher, translator and senior researcher of the Dukh-i-Litera Publishing House; Roman Veretelnyk, literary scholar, critic, translator; Oleh Kotsiuba, literary scholar, Director of Print and Digital Publications at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University; Tamara Hundorova, literary scholar, correspondent member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (the Institute of Literature); Rostyslav Semkiv, writer, literary scholar, critic, translator, associate professor of Kyiv Mohyla Academy; Oksana Khmelyovska, journalist, co-founder and editor of Chytomo media; Andrii Pavlyshyn, journalist, historian, translator, laureate of the 2022 Prize; Myroslav Laiuk, writer, professor, TV presenter, laureate of the 2024 Prize; Vasyl Makhno, poet, writer, translator, laureate of the 2024 Jury’s Special Award.

According to the conditions of the Prize, the short list of nominees will be published no later than December 10. The announcement of the laureate will traditionally take place on 17 December, the birthday of Yuri Shevelyov. The Special Award of Radio Culture will also be awarded on that day. The special award for the development and promotion of the essay genre might be awarded upon the Jury’s decision.

The Yuri Shevelyov Prize was founded in 2013. It is awarded annually to a Ukrainian author of popular and academic essays. The Prize is bearing the name of Yuri Shevelyov, founder of the modern Ukrainian genre of essay. It notes the contribution to the inherent values of this genre: independence of thought and sophistication of style. Original popular or academic essays by Ukrainian authors written in Ukrainian and published in paper form (book, collection) during the calendar year are accepted for consideration. 

The Prize laureates of the previous years were Taras Prokhasko (2013, One and the Same)  and Andriy Portnov (2013, Stories for Domestic Use); Kostiantyn Moskalets (2014, Alarms); Oleksandr Boychenko (2015, More/Less); Vakhtang Kebuladze (2016, Cells of Fate); Andrii Liubka (2017, Saudade); Volodymyr Yermolenko (2018, Volatile Ideologies); Diana Klochko (2019, 65 Ukrainian Masterpieces. Recognized And Implicit); Taras Lyuty (2020, Culture of Charms And Resistance); Andrii Bondar (2021, Treats for Medor), Andrii Pavlyshynv (2022, Eternity Still Jeopardizes Us); Oleksandr Mykhed (2023, Language of War); Myroslav Laiuk (2024, Bakhmut).

Founders of the Prize: PEN Ukraine, Kyiv Mohyla Business School, Dukh-i-Litera Publishing House, Center of Jewish Studies, and Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute