He is a writer, musician and now also a volunteer: In his hometown of Kharkiv, the Ukrainian Serhij Schadan has been helping with evacuations since the beginning of the war, distributing food, coordinating deliveries to the military and giving concerts. He reports on surviving in the war in the book “Himmel über Kharkiv” that has just been published. According to the publisher, it is “the testimony of one who, as he writes, enters a new reality and braces himself against the annihilation of all.”
At the end of the book fair in Frankfurt am Main, Serhij Schadan was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in the Paulskirche on Sunday. He was honored for “his outstanding artistic work and for his humanitarian attitude, with which he turns to people in war and helps them at the risk of his life,” as the Foundation Board of the Peace Prize stated in justification.
Shadan was born in Starobilsk in 1974. In Kharkiv he studied literature, Ukrainian studies and German studies and wrote his doctoral thesis on Ukrainian Futurism. The author has shaped Kharkiv’s cultural scene since the early 1990s. His works have received many awards.
Since Crimea was occupied in 2014, Schadan has also been involved in social and cultural projects in eastern Ukraine, which is partly occupied by the pro-Russian separatists. With the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine at the end of February 2022, he is increasingly providing humanitarian aid.
The political and social developments in his homeland are reflected in Schadan’s work: initially he was particularly concerned with the period of upheaval after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and in more recent texts with the conflict and war region of Donbass. After the Russian attack, he also spoke in the German media.
Even before the Russian war of aggression, Schadan was no stranger to Germany. After all, he is one of the most popular representatives of contemporary literature in Ukraine. Schadan’s works are characterized by a very unique narrative style, combining lyrical descriptions with fast-paced language. Music is often present as an influence. He writes novels, poems and essays, for which he has won several awards, but also lyrics for rock bands and is a singer in a band himself. It was only on Friday evening that he was on stage at a music performance as part of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Schadan writes his texts in Ukrainian, but he also translates poetry from German, English, Belarusian and Russian into Ukrainian. He also writes lyrics for various rock bands and has been the singer of a Ukrainian band since 2007, which translates as “Dogs in Space”.
The Peace Prize of the German Book Trade has been awarded since 1950 and is endowed with 25,000 euros. In 2021 it went to author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga from Zimbabwe.
