Latest news with #OrwellFoundation
Indian Express
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘A tragic completeness': Ukrainian novelist awarded Orwell prize posthumously for unfinished final book
Two years after she was killed in a Russian missile strike, Victoria Amelina, a Ukrainian novelist who became a war crimes researcher after Russia's full-scale invasion of her country, was posthumously awarded the Orwell Prize for Political Writing for her unfinished work, Looking at Women, Looking at War: A War and Justice Diary from Ukraine. The book, released by HarperCollins with a foreword by Margaret Atwood, was described by prize judges as 'technically unfinished but with a tragic completeness.' Atwood, writing in the introduction, calls the war 'Russia's appalling and brutal campaign to annihilate Ukraine,' and reflects that 'in the middle of a war, there is little past or future … there is only the white heat of the moment.' It is in this white heat that Amelina's final book lives, between being witness of the violence, preserving fragments of memory, and brief moments of calm and camaraderie . Born in Lviv in 1986, Amelina trained as a computer scientist before turning to literature. Her debut novel The Fall Syndrome was published in 2014, and her follow-up, Dom's Dream Kingdom (2017), established her as one of Ukraine's leading young literary voices. She also wrote children's books, ran literary festivals, and was raising her young son when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022. At the time, Amelina was at work on a novel. Within weeks, she had set it aside. 'The quest for justice has turned me from a novelist and mother to a war crimes reporter,' she would later write. She joined Truth Hounds, a Ukrainian human rights organisation, and began documenting war crimes: interviewing witnesses, photographing the ruins of cultural sites, and writing. The book she eventually began was part memoir and part chronicle and traced the lives of Ukrainian women who fell prey to wartime brutality. Among them were Evgenia, a lawyer-turned-soldier; Oleksandra Matviichuk, who helped document war crimes and won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2022; and Yulia, a librarian who helped expose the abduction and murder of a children's book author. The manuscript Amelina left behind — roughly 60 percent complete — included essays, field notes, and fragments, some with no more than a title. The first chapter, titled The Shell Hole in the Fairy Tale, opens with the author preparing for a vacation to Egypt. Her newly purchased handgun looks out of place lying near colourful dresses and swimsuits. 'A full-scale Russian invasion has been postponed for the last eight years since 2014,' she writes, still half-believing that war might be avoided. 'Amelina is setting off for a holiday with her young son as the war comes chasing after her and everyone else in Ukraine,' the Orwell Foundation noted in its citation. 'She is finishing a funding application for a literary festival while standing in the airport security line, checking the news and thinking about her new gun.' On the night of June 27, 2023, Amelina was dining with a group of international writers in Kramatorsk, a city in the embattled Donetsk region, when a Russian cruise missile struck the restaurant. She suffered critical head injuries and died four days later. She was 37. Her husband, Alex Amelin, accepted the £3,000 award at a ceremony in London this week, held on George Orwell's birthday. The prize money will support the New York Literary Festival in Donetsk, which Amelina founded. The town, ironically named after the American city, now lies close to the front lines. The Orwell Prize, awarded annually by the Orwell Foundation, honours work that exemplifies George Orwell's values of integrity, decency, and truth-telling in political writing. It seeks to fulfill Orwell's enduring ambition 'to make political writing into an art.'
Irish Examiner
26-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Donal Ryan 'overjoyed' after winning Orwell Prize with novel Heart, Be At Peace
Donal Ryan has said he is 'overjoyed' to have won the prestigious Orwell Prize for political fiction. The Tipperary native was announced as the winner in London for his latest novel, Heart, Be At Peace. 'It was an amazing honour just to be shortlisted, and very unexpected to receive the award. I was overjoyed, and to be introduced and presented by the great Jim Crace was very special,' he told the Irish Examiner. A sequel to his debut, The Spinning Heart, his latest novel tells the story of a small town in rural Ireland through the voices of 21 characters. Heart, Be At Peace explores a community that has weathered the storms of economic collapse and is now looking towards the future. The panel for this year's Orwell Prize for fiction was chaired by author Jim Crace, who said Ryan's book was chosen as the winner 'for its clarity' and the 'perfectly pitched voices' of its characters. Mr Crace described the novel as 'exceptional.' The author joins a list of former Irish winners, including Anna Burns and Claire Keegan. Ukrainian author Victoria Amelina, who died in July 2023 in the war in Ukraine, is the posthumous winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing for her book Looking at Women, Looking at War. Mr Ryan said: 'It was an emotional occasion, with the heroic Victoria Amelina's posthumous award for political writing'. Every year, the Orwell Foundation awards prizes for literary work that mirrors George Orwell's ambition to "make political writing into an art."
RTÉ News
25-06-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Irish writer Donal Ryan wins prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Fiction
Irish writer Donal Ryan has been announced as the winner of the prestigious Orwell Prize for Political Fiction for his novel 'Heart, Be At Peace' this evening in London. The novel, which is set a decade after his acclaimed debut novel, 'The Spinning Heart', centres on the story of a small-knit town told through the voices of 21 different characters. The 2025 judging panel for the prize for fiction was chaired by author Jim Crace and he said that Mr Ryan's book was chosen as the winner "for its clarity" and "for its twenty one perfectly pitched voices". "Here is a small deprived community in rural Ireland - suffering and recovering from the bruises of its political and economic past," Mr Crace said. He described the novel as "exceptional". Mr Ryan, from Co Tipperary, joins a distinguished list of former Irish writers on the winning list, including Anna Burns and Claire Keegan. Ukranian author Victoria Amelina is posthumous winner of the Orwell Prize for Political Writing for her book 'Looking at women, looking at war'. She died in July 2023 in the Ukraine war and her unfinished work documents the resistance efforts of Ukrainian people and was described by the judges as "a testimony and a precious, powerful work of literature, a steady beam of light born amid darkness and violence". There is a prize of £3,000 (€3,517) for each of the winners. Every year, the Orwell Foundation awards prizes for the work which comes closes to George Orwell's own ambition to "make political writing into an art".
