Bogdana Layuk, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Culture, believes that literary awards are one of the most effective ways to influence readers’ tastes, but Ukraine currently lacks them.
“In fact, this is the case in every country. And today, romance and dark fantasy are at the top of the charts everywhere: that’s the spirit of the times. People are trying to escape reality and enter another, imaginary world, such as the one offered by fantasy literature… I think it’s worth considering how bestseller lists are formed and who can influence them: how market players affect this and how the state can influence it. One way to exert such influence is, for example, through prestigious literary awards. “We all follow the Booker Prize, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the English-speaking world,” said Layuk in an exclusive interview with the “Interfax-Ukraine” news agency, responding to a question about the reading preferences of Ukrainians.
She noted that when a book makes it onto the longlist and then the shortlist—for example, for the Booker Prize—and ultimately wins, it has a massive impact on sales.
“And that’s what we call the ‘high shelf.’ “I think we should consider how the reading infrastructure is formed and how we can influence it—both as the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and as bookstores, publishers, cultural centers, and cities. And literary awards are one of the most effective ways to influence the formation of such best-seller lists,” the deputy minister added.
When asked whether there are enough literary awards in Ukraine, Lajuk stated that, in her opinion, there is currently a shortage of such awards in Ukraine.
“In fact, there are a great many literary awards in Ukraine. But the question is how they influence the discourse, whether they affect sales, and whether they bring the author recognition, fame, and money. In my opinion, Ukraine currently lacks such awards. And when we look at the experience of European Union countries, we see that there are state and non-state awards, national awards, as well as regional and city awards,” the deputy minister noted.
As an example, she cited the “Angelus” Prize in Wrocław for literature from Central and Eastern Europe, which has been awarded at various times to Ukrainian authors: Yuriy Andrukhovych, Oksana Zabuzhko, Serhiy Zhadan, and Kateryna Babkina.
“Awards serve very different functions in literature. But a literary award should give the author a chance to pause and reflect on what he or she wants to write next. Because truly outstanding novels don’t just happen by chance. They don’t come about when a writer pens them at 3 a.m. during the first five free minutes of the day. An outstanding book requires space. And we must—both as a country and as a cultural community—create that space so that Ukrainian writers can write new, outstanding books,” Lajuk believes.
As previously reported, Ukraine has the following literary awards, among others: the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine, the BBC Book of the Year, “Coronation of the Word,” the Yuri Shevelov Prize, the Lesya Ukrainka Prize, the Pavlo Tychyna Prize, the Maksym Rylsky Prize, and several others.
