Zelensky Awards Ukraine’s 2025 Shevchenko National Prize Winners

The Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine was awarded March 9 in various categories.

Yuriy Izdryk became a laureate in Literature for the poetry collection “Kollektsiya” (“Collection”)  published by Meridian Czernowitz.

Yuriy Izdryk is a Ukrainian novelist, poet, cultural scholar, and the creator of the conceptual magazine project Chetver. He is one of the key figures behind the Stanislav Phenomenon, an avant-garde group of writers in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk) from 1989-96, and the author of numerous poetry and prose works.

“Kollektsiya” is an attempt to present Izdryk as a network phenomenon. As the annotation explains, the collection includes poems that received more than 600 likes after being posted on Facebook. In this sense, “Kollektsiya” has been shaped entirely by the preferences of Izdryk’s Facebook community. The book is illustrated with his own graphic works from the 1990s, most of which are now in private and institutional collections. For this edition, the author personally enhanced the reproductions with added pencil sketches.

The laureate in “Journalism and Publicism” is Pavlo Kazarin with his Retrospective of Blogs on Ukrainska Pravda.

Pavlo Kazarin is a Ukrainian journalist, a TV and radio presenter, and an opinion maker. He is the author of the book “The Wild West of Eastern Europe. A Ukrainian Guide on Breaking Free from Empire”. Born and raised in Simferopol on Crimea, he moved to Kyiv in 2014, after the annexation of the peninsula. In his writings, Pavlo explores the identity and evolution of post-colonial societies. After the start of the full-scale war in 2022, he joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Currently, he is a Sergeant in a company operating combat drones. 

No laureate was selected in “Literary Studies and Arts” category.

The full list of the winners is available on the webpage of the Shevchenko Prize Commitee.

President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the award ceremony to present the awards. He thanked the laureates for finding the strength to create, as well as cultural figures who have joined the defence forces, visited the front lines with performances, and used their art to raise funds for the army both in Ukraine and abroad. The president also quoted Taras Shevchenko’s “Psalms of David”: “For the deeds of the good shall be renewed, and the deeds of the wicked shall perish.”

As reported earlier, in 2024 Laureate of Shevchenko Prize in Literature became spokesperson for Ukrainian Ministry of Defence and a poet and a soldier Yaryna Chornoguz for her poetry collection “[dasein: defense of presence].” 

The Taras Shevchenko National Prize was founded in 1961. It is the highest award for a significant contribution to the development of culture and art in Ukraine. Not more than seven National Prizes can be awarded every year. A person can be awarded once in their lifetime. The award is conferred by the President of Ukraine based on the decision of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize Committee.

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn