Book on Eastern Ukraine wins Peterson Award for best translation

The book “Ukrainian Sunrise: Stories of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions from the Early 2000s” by Ukrainian writer, political scientist, and paramedic Kateryna Zarembo received an award for the best translation from the Canadian Peterson Literary Fund 2025.

The fund’s website has not yet announced the winner, but in a comment to Chytomo the team that worked on the translation of the book confirmed that the author and translator had received congratulatory letters from the award organizers.

“Ukrainian Sunrise: Stories of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions from the Early 2000s” was published in English in November 2024 by the American publisher Academic Studies Press Cherry Orchard Books in a translation by Tetyana Savchynska. The Ukrainian edition of the book was published in 2022 by Choven Publishing House with cover design by Oksana Vaskiv.

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“This book offers a nuanced exploration of Donetsk and Luhansk regions prior to the 2014 Russian invasion. While the region, collectively known as Donbas, frequently appears in news headlines, it remains under-researched by scholars, and myths about it abound. Combining rigorous research and captivating narration, Kateryna Zarembo debunks common myths about the region, such as its long-standing gravitation towards Russia and its rejection of everything Ukrainian,” the annotation to the book reads. “Through multiple trips to the region and interviews with the locals, the author paints a very different picture of the region than the one often seen in the media: Donetsk and Luhansk have been shedding their Soviet past and reestablishing themselves as Ukrainian up until the 2014 invasion. Kateryna Zarembo takes the reader to pockets of the region most of us will never see, and amplifies the voices of locals whose agency has historically been denied first by the Soviet myth of Donbas, and then by the political elites of Ukraine. Since the 2014 Russian invasion, and especially since the full-scale war, the region has become the site of the most intense fighting, and many of the places mentioned in this book are now reduced to ruins. This book is an essential read to get to know the Ukrainian East and its people, now forever altered by the Russian invasion.”

The Peterson Literary Fund Book Translation Award is presented every two years since 2021. The award is given to recently published translations of fiction and non-fiction literary works into and from Ukrainian. Submissions are mainly encouraged for books translated into Ukrainian from English or French, as well as from Ukrainian into English or French.

The Peterson Literary Fund is an organization supporting Ukrainians worldwide that provides funding for prose works and translations, prioritizing projects likely to appeal to a broad audience. Its award honors books that enhance understanding of Ukraine or its people and address themes significant to the global Ukrainian community.

RELATED: Halyna Herasym won the Translated Book Award

The fund includes several programs, mainly the primary Literary Award, along with prizes for literary translations and a number of grants for writers and translators. It was established by Stanley Peterson, a Canadian philanthropist of Ukrainian descent, to offer international literary awards and grants. The foundation operates under the Canadian charitable organization BCU Foundation (Buduchnist Credit Union Foundation), which supports educational and humanitarian projects. The award totals 30,000 Canadian dollars: the winning author receives 25,000 CAD, the publisher receives 5,000 CAD, and each shortlisted finalist is awarded 5,000 CAD.

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn