A fascinating book, brutal, hilarious and ‘completely bonkers.’
It embraces the grotesque and the absurd in a way which is reflective of
a sensibility and dark humor particular to post-Soviet nations.
– KOBZAR Book Award Jury
Winnipeg – Canadian writer Maria Reva is the winner of the 2022 KOBZARTM Book Award for her book Good Citizens Need Not Fear published by Knopf Canada. The announcement was made during a virtual ceremony on April 28, 2022, presented by award sponsor Ukrainian Canadian Foundation of Taras Shevchenko (Shevchenko Foundation).
Good Citizens Need Not Fear is a clever and heartfelt work of fiction that weaves stories from the chaotic years leading up to and immediately following the fall of the Soviet Union. Inspired by her own family’s experiences, Maria explores the real-life circumstances that influenced the character, determination, and perseverance of so many Ukrainians living in Canada today.
A writer of fiction and opera libretti, Maria’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, and The Best American Short Stories. She won a National Magazine Award in 2019 and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada 2020 Fiction Prize.
The ceremony, hosted by Emmy award-winning journalist Terry MacLeod from the Winnipeg Art Gallery, celebrated Canadian authors whose works help to paint a picture of a people that proudly continues to shape the Canada we know today.
Genres eligible for the KOBZAR Book Award include literary non-fiction, fiction, poetry, young readers’ literature, play, screenplay, and musical. The monetary prize is split between the winner ($20,000) and the publisher ($5,000).
Shortlisted for the 2022 prize were a graphic novel, Enemy Alien: A True Story of Life Behind Barbed Wire (Between the Lines 2020) by Dr. Kassandra Luciuk and illustrated by nicole marie burton, and a book of poetry, Fields of Light and Stone (University of Alberta Press 2020) by Angeline Schellenberg.
The 2022 virtual ceremony was produced and directed by award-winning filmmaker Ryan Boyko, director of the feature documentary “That Never Happened: Canada’s First National Internment Operations.”
About the KOBZARTM Book Award
Presented every two years, the $25,000 KOBZAR Book Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts by authors who write on a topic with a tangible connection to the experiences of Ukrainian Canadians. $20,000 is awarded to the author, $5,000 to the publisher, and $1,500 to each finalist. Genres eligible for submission include literary non-fiction, fiction, poetry, young readers’ literature, play, screenplay and musical.
The Shevchenko Foundation launched the KOBZAR Literary Award at Hart House in Toronto in 2003. The inaugural Award Ceremony was held in March 2006 in Toronto. At the 2018 Award Ceremony the Shevchenko Foundation announced a change in the name of the award to KOBZAR Book Award to better reflect the works being submitted for award consideration.
About the 2022 KOBZAR Book Award winner
Maria Reva writes fiction and opera libretti. She is the author of Good Citizens Need Not Fear (Doubleday, Virago, and Knopf Canada New Face of Fiction 2020).
Maria’s writing has appeared in The Atlantic, McSweeney’s, The Wall Street Journal, Granta, and The Best American Short Stories. She won a National Magazine Award in 2019 and was a finalist for the Writers’ Trust of Canada 2020 Fiction Prize.
Her current musical collaborations include an opera with composer Anna Pidgorna (developed by Musique 3 Femmes in Montreal), as well as a song cycle with Shelley Marwood. Past collaborations include an opera libretto for ERATO Ensemble, texts for Vancouver International Song Institute’s Art Song Lab, and a script for City Opera Vancouver.
Maria was born in Ukraine and grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia. She received her MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas.
About the 2022 KOBZAR Book Award Jurors
Laisha Rosnau is an award-winning poet and novelist. She is the author of Little Fortress (Wolsak & Wynn 2019), the best-selling novel The Sudden Weight of Snow (McClelland & Stewart 2002), and four critically acclaimed, award-winning collections of poetry, most recently Our Familiar Hunger (Nightwood 2018). Her work has won the Blue Heron Poetry Prize, the Acorn-Plantos Poetry Award, and the 2020 KOBZAR™ Book Award. Her work has also been nominated for several awards, including the Amazon/Books in Canada First Novel Award, the Pat Lowther Award, and three times for the CBC Poetry Prize.
Kerry Clare is a National Magazine Award-nominated writer, editor of The M Word: Conversations About Motherhood, and author of two novels, Mitzi Bytes and Waiting for a Star to Fall. She teaches blogging at MyBlogSchool.ca, is editor of the Canadian books’ website 49thShelf.com, and has been a blogger for twenty years, currently at PickleMeThis.com.
Ben Sigurdson is the Literary Editor at the Winnipeg Free Press. Launching his career in the newsroom in 2012, Ben rekindled his love for all things literary and started a new chapter at the Free Press in 2014 with the retirement of esteemed books editor Morley Walker. He also writes about wine, beer, and spirits for the paper. Ben holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/Politics from the University of Winnipeg as well as a Master of Arts degree in English (writing stream) from the University of Manitoba.
