On December 11, 2019, the award ceremony of the “Espreso. Readers’ Choice 2019” book prize took place. More details about the event later in the material.
In May 2017, the “Espreso” TV channel established a book award, which was held for the third time this year. The public organization “All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum” acted as a co-organizer. The “Espreso. Readers’ Choice” award was launched to celebrate the best domestic literary novelties of the year and to support interest in reading books in Ukraine. Here, publishers have the opportunity to find a reliable way to the general public through recommendations, reviews and evaluation of books by authoritative experts and readers themselves.
This year’s award, which took place from May to November, was held in three stages. At the first stage, during June, the organizing committee accepted applications from publishing houses for book participation in the contest, more than 30 publishing houses submitted more than 150 applications. At the second stage, during July, an expert jury consisting of 24 people determined 3 books in each nomination, which made it to the finals. At the third stage, from the beginning of September to November 10, readers in 276 libraries across Ukraine voted to choose the winner. As a result, the organizers received about 4,500 questionnaires from the libraries for voting with readers’ votes and feedback on the books of the finalists.
More than 80 poets, writers, literary experts and publishers were present at the ceremony. An interesting interactive activity, which was noted by all present, was the opportunity to get acquainted with more than 4,000 handwritten reviews about the books of the finalists, which were left by readers in the questionnaires for voting.
There were three finalists in the “Literature for Children” nomination: “The Child of Pesygolovtsiv” by Volodymyr Aryenev; “Flock” by Anastasia Nikulina and “Arctic Apiary” by Oleksandr Dermanskyi. Anastasia Nikulina’s book “The Flock” won. The pack is about teenagers and parkour. The pack – this is the name given to a group of boy friends who are tracers, i.e. people who practice parkour. This is an action-packed novel that will be interesting for adults as well.
Let’s move on to the nomination “Literature for adults”, here the following books made it to the finals: “Phonetics of Silence” by Ivan Andrusiak; “Behind the back” by Haska Shiyan and “Brotherhood” by Oleg Kryshtopa.
Haska Shiyan’s book “Behind the Back” won the “Literature for Adults” nomination. The novel is based on the story of 27-year-old Marta. Her boyfriend, in connection with the war in the east of our country, receives a summons and decides to exchange a comfortable life, a good job and Marta herself for the dugout. This destroys the usual state of things and their perception. In the end, the girl herself decides to change and rethink reality.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the book award “Espreso. Readers’ Choice 2019”, in particular to the general media partner of the Espreso TV channel, the logistics partner of Nova Poshta, and the organizational partner of the public organization Diya. We would like to thank all the libraries, readers, and experts who participated in the award and helped us celebrate the best literary novelties and their authors. Thank you for popularizing reading books in Ukraine together with us.
