Norway to Grant 20 Scholarships to Ukrainian Authors Documenting War Experience

Norway has a three-year scholarship programme for Ukrainian authors who are documenting their war experiences. This was discussed during the conversation ‘Support in Action: How Norway is Helping Ukrainian Culture’ at the Book Arsenal in Kyiv.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to Ukrinform.

During the event, as part of the Ukrainian PEN's special programme ‘Cardiogram of Translation,’ Arve Hansen and Oge Borchgrenk from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and Bernard Mor, representative of the Norwegian Association of Non-Fiction Authors and Translators, emphasised the importance of conveying accurate information about the current Russian-Ukrainian war to Scandinavian audiences and spoke about their solidarity support for Ukrainian authors and Ukrainian culture in general.

As noted, the scholarship programme from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Norwegian Association of Non-Fiction Authors and Translators, the Norwegian Writers' Union and Ukrainian PEN was launched in 2024.

Last year, 10 scholarships were awarded under the programme, and this year, 20 scholarships of 5,000 euros each (in hryvnia equivalent) are planned to support the projects of Ukrainian writers and journalists and to promote the creation of new texts that record and reflect on the experience of the Russian-Ukrainian war since 2014.

The jury will consider creative works in the following areas: non-fiction (reportage, biographies, essays, interviews, etc.); fiction (novels, short stories, poetry, drama, etc.); children's and teenage literature (fiction and non-fiction texts).

Applications will be accepted until 31 July, and the winners will be announced on 30 September.

One of the conditions for applicants for this scholarship is that they must have already published a work of fiction or non-fiction at the time of application. At the same time, works written as part of the programme must be published by a Ukrainian publishing house no later than 30 November of the following year. Several authors will have the opportunity to present their projects to a Norwegian audience.

Funding is provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development with the support of The Nansen Support Programme for Ukraine.

Last year, the assistance programme from the Norwegian Association of Non-Fiction Authors and Translators and Ukrainian PEN covered Ukrainian authors working in the non-fiction genre. The winners included Andriy Lyubka (a documentary book about the current war, ‘This Cannot Be Forgotten’); Yevheniia Podobna (a book of artistic reports about the occupation of Bucha, ‘Shadows on Yablunska Street’); Artem Chekh (a book of essays, ‘The Game of Dressing Up’ — a chronology of the great war).

Scholarships for writing and publishing non-fiction books were awarded to Lyubov Yakymchuk, who is working on the book ‘Tulips of Azovstal’ about the self-sacrifice of Ukrainian soldiers during the defence of Mariupol in the spring of 2022, and Petro Yatsenko, who will present ‘Hotel War’ , a book about Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine.

The scholarship programme will continue in 2026.

The 13th International Book Arsenal Festival will run until 1 June.

As The Gaze reported earlier, Norway will help equip the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with modern weapons, armoured vehicles and other technological solutions.