10 winning projects of the fellowship program for non-fiction authors announced

The winners were selected by the Jury among 101 applied submissions

The fellowship program from the Norwegian Non-fiction Writers and Translators Association and PEN Ukraine is aimed to support Ukrainian writers and journalists who work in non-fiction genres and to help document the experience of the war that Ukrainian society has been living through since 2014, in documentary literature. Non-fiction genres include essays, biographies, reportages, interviews etc.

10 fellowships amounting to €5000 each (in UAH equivalent), will be granted within the program. As a result of the program, every fellow should publish the non-fiction book prepared within the program, in a Ukrainian publishing company no later than November 30, 2025

The fellows of the program are:

1. Maksym Bespalov (literary reportage book Artifacts ("Артефакти") about items damaged during the Russian invasion of Ukraine)
2. Khrystyna Kotsira (Kutiepova) (non-fiction book tentatively titled Missing ("Зниклі") about Ukrainians and their families who went missing)
3. Andrii Lyubka (documentary book about the current life in war-torn Ukraine titled This Is Not to Be Forgotten ("Цього не можна забути"))
4. Kateryna Mikhalitsyna (a book of stories of librarians from different Ukrainian cities about their personal experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war)
5. Svitlana Oslavska (reportage book about the occupation tentatively titled In Their Own Skin ("На власній шкірі"))
6. Yevheniia Podobna (literary reportage book about the occupation of Bucha in February and March 2022 titled Shadows on Yablunska Street ("Тіні на вулиці Яблунській"))
7. Valerii Puzik (book of essays Who We Were ("Ким ми були") about real people who keep defending Ukraine)
8. Artem Chekh (book of essays Dressing Up Game ("Гра в перевдягання") — a chronicle of the big war depicted through music)
9. Lyubov Yakymchuk (non-fiction book Tulips of Azovstal ("Тюльпани Азовсталі") about the Ukrainian military’s self-sacrifice during the defense of Mariupol in spring 2022)
10. Petro Yatsenko (non-fiction book Hotel War ("Готель "Війна") about Russian POWs in Ukraine as the personification of modern Russia)

The applied submissions were evaluated by the Jury consisting of Tamara Hundorova (literary scholar),Yurii Prokhasko (translator and essayist), Oksana Forostyna (publisher, translator, and publicist), Mariya Tytarenko (essayist and writer), Dmytro Krapyvenko (journalist and military serviceman), Bernhard L. Mohr (member of NFFO, non-fiction writer and editor at Cappelen Damm), and Atle Grønn (member of NFFO, non-fiction writer and professor at the University of Oslo).

While determining the winners of the project, the Jury assessed the criteria such as the unique author’s style, social and cultural significance of the author’s idea, and the author’s capability of carrying out the necessary research and processing of materials for a book.

For more details about the program, please follow the link.