The finalists of the Prize are:

• Alessandro Achilli (Italy) is a translator from Ukrainian into Italian. Senior assistant at the Department of Slavic Languages ​​and Literatures of the University of Cagliari (Italy), a researcher of modern Ukrainian literature with particular attention to poetry and cultural history. He is nominated for the Prize with a translation into Italian of Markiyan Kamysh’s novel “Oformland: A Stroll to the Zone” (publisher – Keller editore).
• Iryna Dmytryshyn (France) is a translator from Ukrainian into Polish. Author of numerous publications on Ukrainian literature and history. She is responsible for Ukrainian studies at the National Institute for Oriental Languages ​​and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris. She is nominated for the Prize with a French translation of Yurii Andrukhovych’s novel “The Lexicon of Intimate Cities” (publisher – Noir sur Blanc).
• Bohdan Zadura (Poland) is a translator from Polish into Ukrainian, a writer and a literary critic. The author of twenty-five books of poetry and over a dozen volumes of essays and prose. For many years editor of the quarterly “Akcent”, since 2004 editor-in-chief of “Twórczość” monthly. Nominated for the Prize with translations into Polish of Kateryna Babkina’s “My grandfather danced better than everyone else” (publisher – Warsztaty Kultury), Vasyl Makhno’s “Eternal Calendar” (publisher – Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy) and Yuriy Wynnychuk’s “Lyutetsia” (publisher – Warstwy).

Applications for the 2021 Drahomán Prize closed on November 30, 2021. The long list of the Drahomán Prize included 20 translators. Most of the nominees are translators who translate from Ukrainian into Polish and Italian. On the long list were also translators into German, Belarusian, Romanian, Dutch, Portuguese, French, Hungarian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Latvian, Macedonian and Hebrew.

Applications came from 15 countries, including Italy, Belarus, Romania, Austria, the Netherlands, Brazil, Poland, France, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Israel, Latvia, North Macedonia and the Czech Republic. Diplomatic missions of Ukraine in various countries of the world and foreign publishing houses submitted the most applications.

According to the terms of the Prize, the Prize Chapter announces the finalists of the Drahomán Prize in March. The laureate award ceremony takes place in April. Due to the full-scale war launched by Russia against Ukraine, the announcement of the list of finalists was postponed to August. The awarding ceremony of the laureate will take place in October. This year, it will be held abroad for the first time at the Literaturhaus Berlin – the first house of literature in Germany, a cultural and educational institution dedicated to popularizing world literature, making it accessible to the public through modern formats. 

The Drahomán Prize was founded in 2020 by the Ukrainian Institute, PEN Ukraine and the Ukrainian Book Institute. The Award is designed to support and celebrate the collaborative work of translators from Ukrainian into the languages of the world. The Drahomán Prize is awarded for high translation skills and contribution to the promotion of Ukrainian literature abroad.

The short list and the laureate of the Prize are determined by the Chapter, which consists of 9 members. It includes representatives of the founding organizations, as well as authoritative writers, translators, linguists and literary critics, and cultural managers. 

The Chapter of the 2021 Prize included: Andriy Kurkov, writer and President of PEN Ukraine; Volodymyr Sheiko, General Director of the Ukrainian Institute; Oleksandra Koval, Director of the Ukrainian Book Institute; Ola Hnatyuk, researcher, professor at National University of  the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and the University of Warsaw, Vice-President of PEN Ukraine; Ostap Slyvynsky, poet and translator; Valentina Stukalova, Manager of book and intellectual projects at the French Institute in Ukraine; Yurii Prokhasko, translator; Marko Robert Stech, Ukrainian and Canadian literary scholar and writer; Iryna Starovoyt, literary critic, poet, translator.

The Prize laureate receives a statuette made by a famous Ukrainian sculptor, a monetary reward of 3,000 Euros, as well as additional professional opportunities and opportunities for the promotion of their work.

The first of the Prize in 2020 was the German translator Claudia Dathe. She was nominated with translations into German of Serhiy Zhadan’s “Antenna” (published by Suhrkamp) and Oleksii Chupa’s novel “Tales of My Bomb Shelter” (published by Haymon Verlag). The Chapter’s Special Honor “for excellence in translation and promotion of Ukrainian classical literature” went to Imadeddine Raef, a Ukrainian-to-Arabic translator who was also nominated for the Drahomán Prize by the Embassy of Ukraine in the Republic of Lebanon with his translation of “Beirut Stories” by Agathangel Krymsky.

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Ukrainian Institute is a public institution affiliated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Our mission is to strengthen Ukraine’s international standing through the means of cultural diplomacy. We facilitate international connections between people and institutions and create opportunities for Ukraine to interact and cooperate with the world.

Ukrainian PEN is a cultural and human rights NGO uniting Ukrainian intellectuals – writers, journalists, scholars, publishers, translators, human rights defenders, culture managers. With 150 members, it is one of 146 national centers of PEN International. It is a co-founder of the Vasyl Stus Prize, the Yuri Shevelov Prize, and the George Gongadze Prize.

Ukrainian Institute of Books is a government entity affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine. Its mission is to develop state policy in the book sector, promote book reading in Ukraine, support book publishing, encourage translation activity, and popularize Ukrainian literature abroad.