Author Janice Kulyk Keefer has been named the winner of the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award for her acclaimed novel The Ladies' Lending Library (Harpers Collins, 2007).

Renowned Canadian author Janice Kulyk Keefer has been named the winner of the $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award for her acclaimed novel The Ladies' Lending Library (Harpers Collins, 2007). 

Kulyk Keefer, a previous multiple nominee for the Governor General's Award for Literature, accepted the Kobzar Award on March 6 from Andrew Hladyshevsky, Q.C., president of the Shevchenko Foundation, sponsor of the Award, at a gala ceremony attended by more than 300 guests at the Palais Royale ballroom in Toronto.

Set in the summer of 1963, The Ladies' Lending Library recounts the awakening of a close-knit group of women preparing to draw another summer season to a close amidst the relaxed ambiance of central Ontario cottage country, where their days are ruled by the predictable rhythms of children and chores, and lightened by the racy books they share and their Friday afternoon gatherings for gin and gossip. The women share a Ukrainian heritage and its diverse experiences as post-war immigrants, and face the challenges of raising their children in a new socio-cultural context, foreign to them, yet liberating from the trauma of the past. Behind the façade of summer routines brew passions, old rages, and jealousies, as well as opportunities to move beyond traditional expectations and embrace happiness.               

Kulyk Keefer is a recipient of the Marian Engel Award, the Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry, two prizes from the CBC Radio Literary Competition and several National Magazine Awards. A resident of Toronto, she teaches literature and theatre in the graduate studies department of the University of Guelph.

The biennial Kobzar Literary Award recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts through the author's presentation of a Ukrainian Canadian theme with literary merit. Categories include: non-fiction, fiction, young people's literature, poetry, plays, screenplays or musicals. 

Laura Langston, author of the novel Lesia's Dream, and Danny Schur, composer and producer of the theatrical production STRIKE! - The Musical, were co-recipients of the 2006 Kobzar Literary Award.

Other finalists for the 2008 Kobzar Literary Award included Marusya Bociurkiw, of Toronto, for Comfort Food for Breakups: The Memoir of a Hungry Girl; Roman Fodchuk, of Calgary, for Zhorna: Material Culture of the Ukrainian Pioneers, and Lisa Grekul, of Kelowna, BC, for Leaving Shadows: Literature in English by Canada's Ukrainians.               

The four-member judging panel for the 2008 Kobzar Literary Award included author and playwright Sharon Butala; author and educator Prof. Modris Eksteins; author and broadcast journalist Laura Langston, and editor, author and literary critic John Metcalf.