Olena Stiazhkina won the 2023 Lviv — UNESCO City of Literature Award

The winners of the 2023 Lviv — UNESCO City of Literature Award were announced in Lviv, according to post on Facebook page of Lviv City Mayor Andriy Sadovyi.

A novel “Cecil the Lion Had to Die” by Ukrainian writer and journalist Olena Stiazhkina received the 2023 Lviv — UNESCO City of Literature Award. Originally published by the Old Lion Publishing House in 2021, the book narrates about the war and the destinies of people accidentally brought together at Donetsk maternity hospital.

“A tour de force of stylistic registers and intertwining stories, ironic voices and sincere discoveries, this novel is a must-read for those who seek to deeper understand Ukrainians from the Donbas, and how history and local identity have shaped the current war with Russia,” is written in the annotation to the book.

The book was translated by Dominique Hoffman and will be published by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). The release is expected on January 23, 2024.

Special awards for literature pieces about war went to:

• Nina Zakhozhenko for her play “Me, war and plastic grenade” (eight dramatic short stories about the lives and deaths of civilians in Ukraine in the first months of the full-scale invasion, the collective trauma and the new reality it has created);
• Yaryna (Yara) Chornohuz for her poetry book “[dasein: defense of presence]” published by Vikhola (letters from the front line about the pain of losing comrades, war, realizing and accepting one’s choice to stay there).

Olena Stiazhkina is Ukrainian writer, publicist, Grand PhD in History, Professor of History, member of PEN Ukraine. Founder of “De-occupation. Homecoming. Education” public movement. She is the author of more than ninety scientific publications both in Ukraine and abroad.

The Lviv — UNESCO City of Literature Award is an annual all-Ukrainian literary award given to a writer or translator for an original or translated work of fiction in the Ukrainian language. The award was established to honor works of contemporary literature and to give them a public resonance.

RELATED: Olena Stiazhkina’s book “Ukraine, War, Love: A Donetsk Diary” will be published in USA

Images: Andriy Sadovyi’s Facebook page