Congratulations to Halyna Hryn, editor of Harvard Ukrainian Studies, for co-winning the 2021 Translation Prize of the American Association of Ukrainian Studies!
The winning book is the English edition of Oksana Zabuzhko's Your Ad Could Go Here (Amazon Crossing, 2020), with the prize going to the team of translators: Marco Carynnyk, Marta Horban, Halyna Hryn, Askold Melnyczhuk, and Nina Murray.
Of the eight short stories included in the collection, Hryn translated five: "Oh Sister, My Sister"; "The Tale of the Guelder Rose Flute" (with Nina Murray); "Your Ad Could Go Here"; "The Tennis Instructor"; and "No Entry to the Performance Hall after the Third Bell."
Book Description:
Oksana Zabuzhko, Ukraine’s leading public intellectual, is called upon to make sense of the unthinkable reality of our times. In this breathtaking short story collection, she turns the concept of truth over in her hands like a beautifully crafted pair of gloves. From the triumph of the Orange Revolution, which marked the start of the twenty-first century, to domestic victories in matchmaking, sibling rivalry, and even tennis, Zabuzhko manages to shock the reader by juxtaposing things as they are―inarguable, visible to the naked eye―with how things could be, weaving myth and fairy tale into pivotal moments just as we weave a satisfying narrative arc into our own personal mythologies.
At once intimate and worldly, these stories resonate with Zabuzhko’s irreverent and prescient voice, echoing long after reading.
Your Ad Could Go Here was included on The New York Time's list of highly anticipated books coming out in translation in 2020.
This is not the first time Hryn has been recognized for her extraordinary translation work. In 2011, she won the AAUS Translation Prize for her translation of Zabuzhko's Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex, a "groundbreaking" work considered one of the most influential Ukrainian books since independence. Artful and nuanced translations of Ukrainian fiction make these works available to readers around the world and help increase appreciation for Ukraine's literary talents.