Nika Generation National Prize: Kharkiv Records New Names in Ukrainian Culture

On 19 May, the award ceremony of the Nika Generation National Prize took place in Kharkiv on the stage of the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. Established in honour of artist and poet Nika Kozhushko, the prize recognises young authors and artists in the fields of literature and visual arts.

Yelyzaveta Tepliakova became the laureate of the prize in literature. Kateryna Nosal won the prize for painting. A special award from the AZA NIZI MAZA studio went to Kupava Nadtochii.

The jury of the Literature category consisted of Serhiy Zhadan, Olha Bondar, and Natalia Ahulova. The winner in the Painting category was selected by Pavlo Makov and Natalia Ivanova (with Lesia Vasylchenko participating remotely).

Separate awards for works on military themes were also presented during the ceremony. Their laureates were Veronika Khmelivska in literature and Vladyslav Malyshev in painting. The awards were presented by servicewoman and poet Yuliia "Tayra" Paievska and Artem Revchuk, an officer of the Omega special unit and co-founder of the Nika Generation charitable foundation.

During the ceremony, Maksym Sytnikov, Executive Director of PEN Ukraine, addressed the audience from the stage.

"For the past four years, we have often appealed to justice. And it would be just if this prize never existed at all, if Nika was alive and celebrating her 20th birthday among her friends. If the generation of artists born 15 years after regaining our independence never learned what war, air raid sirens, shelters, the bombing of cities, and forced displacement were. And it would be just if that rotten empire that launched this war and killed Nika, along with at least 273 other Ukrainian cultural figures documented in PEN Ukraine’s monitoring, finally disappeared from the world map. I know that Nika dreamed of this, and I wish for all of us to live to see that day, which will surely come," said Maksym Sytnikov.

Representatives of the Ministry of Culture and the Kharkiv City Council, as well as representatives of Kharkiv universities and the artistic community, were also present at the ceremony.

The Nika Generation Prize is held with the support of the Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine programme, funded by the governments of the United Kingdom, Estonia, Canada, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden.