Fellowship program for Ukrainian authors launched by PEN Ukraine with sponsorship from The Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine

Organizers: Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and Translators Association, Norwegian Authors’ Union, PEN Ukraine. The project is sponsored by The Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine.

20 fellowships amounting to €5000 each (in UAH equivalent), will be granted within the 2025 program.

The program is aimed at supporting Ukrainian writers and journalists who work in non-fiction genres and to help documenting the experience of the war that Ukrainian society has been living through since 2014.

Unlike 2024, this year’s program will cover not only authors who work in non-fiction genres but also fiction writers.

The project is aimed at supporting authors who work in genres such as:

• Non-fiction: reportage, biographies, essays, interviews etc.;
• Fiction: novel, short story, poetry, plays etc.;
• Children’s and young adult literature: fiction and non-fiction texts.

Timeline 2025:

• April 18 – July 31 – open call
• August-September – work of the Jury
• September 30 – announcement of the winners
• October-November – contracts with the winners
• Up to November 30, 2026 – publication of the books

Jury:

The applied submissions will be evaluated by the Jury consisting of writers, scholars, journalists, and representatives of Norwegian literary organizations:

• Tetyana Teren, journalist, cultural manager, Executive Board member of PEN Ukraine
• Bogdana Romantsova, editor, literary scholar
• Rostyslav Semkiv, literary scholar, publisher
• Bogdan Kolomiychuk, writer, military serviceman
• Mariya Tytarenko, essayist, professor at the Ukrainian Catholic University
• Ivan Andrusyak, poet, children’s writer, literary critic, translator
• Bernhard L. Mohr, member of NFFO, writer, editor of the Cappelen Damm
• Olya Shamshur, project manager of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee
• Iryna Shuvalova, poet, translator, researcher, post-doc fellow at the University of Oslo

Criteria for the winners’ determining:

• The author’s unique style
• Social and cultural significance of the author’s idea
• The author’s capability of carrying out the necessary research and processing of materials for a book.

A fellow will get:

• the fellowship amounting to €5000
• some authors will also be granted a possibility to present their project to the Norwegian audience

A fellow’s responsibilities:

• A Ukrainian author with at least 1 non-fiction book published may apply for the fellowship.
• A fellow takes the responsibility to publish the book prepared within the program, in a Ukrainian publishing company no later than November 30, 2026.
• A fellow takes the responsibility to mention this in their book: "This book was published through the fellowship provided by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and Translators Association, Norwegian Authors’ Union and PEN Ukraine. The fellowship was sponsored by The Norwegian Agency for Development with support from The Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine"
• Two copies of the published book must be sent to the library of PEN Ukraine.

How to apply:

• To participate in the program, Ukrainian authors should fill in the application form https://forms.gle/FyCR8y1Y3RP6dx5y5
• Please note that the application form includes the timeline of the fellow’s work on their text and preparing the book for publication; the synopsis of the work (up to 10,000 characters with spaces); the recommendation from a reputable expert; the copy of the agreement with a publishing company or the letter of intent to publish the book no later than November 30, 2026.
• Academic papers, submissions from groups of authors and the 2024 program fellows are not considered within the project.

Coordinator of the fellowship program: Alisa Bondarenko, cultural project manager of PEN Ukraine Contact email: alycebondarenko@gmail.com

The main visual of the program includes the photo by Stas Kozliuk