Translators of ‘The Winter King’ poetry collection by Ostap Slyvynsky received the AAUS Award

Literary translator and critic Vitaly Chernetsky and Ukrainian poet and translator Iryna Shuvalova have won the American Association for Ukrainian Studies (AAUS) Translation Prize for their translation of “The Winter King,” a poetry collection by Ostap Slyvynsky, as announced by the author on his Facebook page.

“They say Vitaly Chernetsky and Iryna Shuvalova have just received the AAUS Translation Prize for their translation of this book. Congratulations to both of them!” Ostap Slyvynsky wrote.

Oksana Maksymchuk, jury member, translator, and 2023 AAUS laureate, said that the jury described the translations by Vitaly Chernetsky and Iryna Shuvalova as “balanced and musical interpretations of skillfully crafted originals. Delicate and detailed, they possess a wonderful balance between accuracy of interpretation and poetic virtuosity.”

The jury has also honored the anthology “Babyn Yar: Ukrainian Poets Respond” by John Hennessy and Ostap Kin.

“This book is powerful, fascinating. Elegant and convincing translations bring to life the diverse and heterogeneous voices, conveying their roughness and dark intensity,” the jury noted.

“The Winter King” is a poetry collection by Ostap Slyvynsky published in Ukraine in 2018. Vitaly Chernetsky and Iryna Shuvalova translated it for a contemporary Ukrainian poetry series by Lost Horse Press.

Vitaly Chernetsky is an American Slavic scholar, literary critic, and translator of Ukrainian literature into English. He is also a Slavic Languages and Literatures Professor at the University of Kansas.

Iryna Shuvalova is a poet and researcher from Kyiv, Ukraine, residing in Oslo. She is the author of five award-winning poetry collections.

American Association for Ukrainian Studies, AAUS, is an educational organization founded in 1989 to share knowledge about Ukraine, popularize Ukrainian studies, create resources for building the scientific advancement of its members, and make the organization’s intellectual resources available to the media and the public.

Organization members are scholars, doctoral studies students, and undergraduates primarily from the United States and Canada, as well as individual members from Europe, including Ukraine. The Association is affiliated with the International Association of Ukrainian Studies, the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), and the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN).

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Main image: Lost Horse Press

Translation: Iryna Saviuk
Copy editing: Jared Goyette, Terra Friedman King