Andriy Lyubka, vice president of Ukrainian PEN and writer, has been nominated for the 2024 Ambassador of New Europe publishing award for the Polish edition of his book War from the Rear. Ukrainian PEN announced this on its Facebook page.
The book is based on the stories of real people. In it, Andriy Lyubka captures his own emotions and experiences during hazardous volunteer missions and constructs a panorama of Ukrainian life during the full-scale invasion.
In total, the award jury selected only five finalists from among the 58 publications admitted to the competition. Among them is Ukrainian historian Nataliya Sarchenko, with her book Ukrainian Worlds of the Polish–LithuanianCommonwealth: Stories About Stories.
Jury member Magdalena Madej notes that all of the selected works are united by “critical reflection on European history and the present day”, and the authors “raise topics that are key to identity and collective memory: from the complex legacy of collaboration and political transformations, through architecture as an expression of ideology and social practice, to Ukrainian–Polish historical relations and the Ukrainian perspective on the ongoing war”.
The Ambassador of New Europe Award, established in 2011 by the European Solidarity Centre in Gdańsk and the Jan Nowak–Jeziorański College of Eastern Europe in Wrocław, recognises the best publications in Polish that boldly and uncompromisingly dismantle stereotypes about Europe and its people, and seek answers to the question of what Europe means today.