2023 - Iroida Wynnyckyj, Acceptance Speech, Peterson Literary Fund Translated Book Awards
Channel: Peterson Literary Fund
Date: 2024-01-20

THE EXTRAORDINARY LIVES OF UKRAINIAN CANADIAN WOMEN:
ORAL HISTORIES OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Iroida Wynnyckyj – Editor
Marta Olynyk – Translator

Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press - Publisher

“Recognized for its archival value in providing historians with multigenerational testimonies of Ukrainian Canadian women whose personal stories were shaped by the tumultuous events of two world wars.”

This collection of life stories recounted by ten Ukrainian Canadian women who lived through the turbulence of the First World War and horrors of the Second World War, later settling in Canada, provides insight into the plight of a stateless people caught between two totalitarian regimes.

Its value to historians, scholars, and researchers lies in the human dimension of these first-hand accounts, with all their emotions, deep-seated memories, and historical biases. It is a snapshot into the past and a reminder of how far Eastern and Central European communities have come to heal the deep wounds of war. And in many ways, the testimonies are a lesson in how powerlessness, disaffection, and the backdrop of war can breed prejudice, conflict, and human tragedy, while at the same time underscoring the often-elusive acts of human decency and triumph of hope.