Literary Awards in the System of Book Awards in Ukraine

Literary awards have been analyzed within the system of book awards and ratings in Ukraine; their characteristics have been studied along with the criteria for the selection of texts and editions, assessment methodology as well as the impact the awards have on the recognition of authors and their books in Ukraine and beyond. Selected for the analysis were already published texts, thus focus is placed on book awards, ratings and rankings. In order to develop a methodology for the assessment of literary works as part of book awards, their systematization under various criteria has been put forward. Distinction has been drawn between the concepts of a literary and a book award; specifics of competitions, awards and ratings have been provided. Literary awards are based on the discussion of the content, namely relevance, freshness, artistic merit, aesthetic value and others; book awards consider a totality of literary criteria and the publishing characteristics of the publication and its culture. The study concentrates on the methodology of book selection, assessment criteria, marketing potential and fiction authors-winners of a dozen of book awards, namely Book Forum Best Book Award, Book of the Year rating, BBC Book of the Year, Best Ukrainian Book (rating by Korrespondent magazine), LitAkcent of the Year, Critic’s Rating, Golden Writers of Ukraine and others. The nominations of book competitions and awards for fiction have been discussed. The specifics of each of the awards with regards to the selection and assessment of literary works has been identified along with their coverage in media, promotion of sales, impact on further assessment of the book in the system of book procurement and the potential for translations being made into other languages. Book of the Year rating, BBC Book of the Year, LitAkcent of the Year and others have been used to analyze the nominations for literary works of various genres: poetry, prose, special genre literature, belles-lettres, memoirs, documentary, scripts, drama, teenage and children’s literature.