The National Writers' Union of Ukraine ( uk, Національна спілка письменників України) (''НСПУ'') is a voluntary social-creative association of professional writers, poets, prose writers,

playwrights A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

critics A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or governme ...

, and translators.

History

The NSPU was founded in 1934 as the

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

Union of Writers, a part of the

Union of Soviet Writers The Union of Soviet Writers, USSR Union of Writers, or Soviet Union of Writers (russian: Союз писателей СССР, translit=Soyuz Sovetstikh Pisatelei) was a creative union of professional writers in the Soviet Union. It was founded ...

, which was established in the same year. In post-communist time, the Writers' Union of Ukraine declared its independence from any

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

structures (1991). In 1997 the Union split, losing some of its members who created a new organization, the

Association of Ukrainian Writers Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry *Voluntary associatio ...

. In 2020, the Union blacklisted publications from countries that politically opposed the "territorial integrity of Ukraine." The list included Russia, Belarus, China, and Armenia.

Organisation

Today the NSPU has over 1,800 members, including 84 writers living abroad. The majority of NSPU members write in the Ukrainian language, while others write in Russian, Moldavian, Yiddish, Hungarian, Greek, etc. Regional organizations of the Union are situated in every

oblast An oblast (; ; Cyrillic (in most languages, including Russian and Ukrainian): , Bulgarian: ) is a type of administrative division of Belarus, Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Ukraine, as well as the Soviet Union and the Kingdo ...

centre of Ukraine and large cities. The supreme body of the NSPU is the Congress of Ukrainian Writers, which is gathered in five years. In the between time, the Union is managed by the Council and Presidium of the NSPU. Executive functions are delegated to the Secretariat. The NSPU has special literary awards to honour the best achievements in corresponding fields, among which are Lesia Ukrainka Prize, the

Ivan Franko Ivan Yakovych Franko (Ukrainian: Іван Якович Франко, pronounced ˈwɑn ˈjɑkowɪtʃ frɐnˈkɔ 27 August 1856 – 28 May 1916) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, ...

Prize, the

Pavlo Tychyna Pavlo Hryhorovych Tychyna ( uk, Павло Григорович Тичина; – September 16, 1967) was a major Ukrainian poet, translator, publicist, public activist, academician, and statesman. He composed the lyrics to the Anthem of the Ukr ...

Prize, the Maksym Rylsky Prize, "Blahovist" (Church Bells), and others. The headquarters of the Union is located at 2

Bankova Street Bankova Street ( uk, вулиця Банкова, vulytsia Bankova) is a street in central Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country af ...

, the former residence of Trepov and later Liebermann.

Notable members

* Anatoly Kasheida, writer, poet, and

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

* Pavlo Zahrebelnyi, Ukrainian

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...

Mykola Chaban Mykola Chaban ( uk, Микола Петрович Чабан) is a Soviet and Ukrainian journalist, a Ukrainian prose writer, specialist in regional studies of Dnipropetrovsk region. He is a Merited Journalist of Ukraine (2007). Mykola Chaban wa ...

, Merited Journalist of Ukraine and Dnipropetrovsk

regional studies Area studies (also known as regional studies) are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, ...

specialist *

Larisa Matveyeva Larysa Vitaliivna Matvyeyeva ( uk, Лариса Віталіївна Матвєєва, born May 9, 1969, Mykolaiv, Ukraine) — poet, novelist, playwright, translator. She is a member of The National Writers' Union of Ukraine (1998). Biography ...

, poet, novelist, and playwright *

Stepan Protsiuk Stepan Vasylovych Protsiuk ( uk, Степа́н Васи́льович Процю́к; born 13 August 1964 in Kuty, Lviv Oblast) is a contemporary Ukrainian novelist, essayist and poet. Biography Stepan Protsiuk was born on 13 August 1964 in ...

, novelist,

essayist An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

, and poet *

Dmytro Kremin Dmytro Dmytrovych Kremin ( uk, Дмитро Дмитрович Кремінь; 21 August 1953 – 25 May 2019) was a Ukrainian poet, journalist, translator, and scholar. Kremin was one of the awardees of The Taras Shevchenko National Literary Pr ...

, poet and journalist *

Larysa Khorolets Larysa Ivanivna Khorolets ( uk, Лариса Іванівна Хоролець; 25 August 1948 – 12 April 2022) was a Ukrainian actress, playwright, cultural manager, politician, and academic teacher. She played at the Ivan Franko National Ac ...

, Ukrainian actress and

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organizatio ...

Svetlana Ischenko Svitlana Viktorivna Ischenko ( uk, Світлана Вікторівна Іщенко, born July 30, 1969, Mykolaiv, Ukraine) — poet, translator, stage actress, teacher, artist. She is a member of The Ukrainian Writers’ Association (1997) and ...

, poet,

stage actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lite ...

and translator * Yuri Pokalchuk, head of the international department * Felix Krivin, prosaist and screenwriter * Ivan Holovchenko, militsiya general *

Ivanna Blazhkevych Ivanna Omelyanivna Blazhkevych (9 October 1886 — 2 March 1977) was a Ukrainian children's writer, public figure, and educator. Early life and education Ivanna Blazhkevych, maiden surname Borodievych, was born on 9 October 1886 in the village ...

, children's writer, public figure and educator *

Efim Alexandrov Efim Alexandrov (born Efimian Ziсerman; 13 May 1960, Pidvolochysk Raion, Ternopil Oblast, Ukrainian SSR) is a Russian artist of the "spoken word” genre (stand-up comedian) and performer of Jewish music. He focuses in particular on Yiddish folk ...

, stand-up comedian and

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

folk music performer *

Mykola Bazhan Mykola Platonovych Bazhan (; – 23 November 1983) was a Soviet Ukrainian writer, poet, highly decorated political and public figure. He was an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1951), Merited Science Specialist o ...

Soviet Ukrainian The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

writer, poet, and

public figure A public figure is a person who has achieved notoriety, prominence or fame within a society, whether through achievement, luck, action, or in some cases through no purposeful action of their own, In the context of defamation actions (libel and ...

Oleksandr Korniychuk Oleksandr Yevdokymovych Korniychuk (russian: Алекса́ндр Евдоки́мович Корнейчу́к, uk, Олександр Євдокимович Корнійчук, 25 May 2 o.s. 1905 – 14 May 1972) was a Ukrainian playwright, lit ...

, playwright, literary critic, and state official * Ivan Kulyk, poet, writer, translator, diplomat, and Communist Party activist *

Volodymyr Yavorivsky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Yavorivsky ( uk, Володимир Олександрович Яворівський; 11 October 1942 – 17 April 2021) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, journalist and politician. Biography Born in 1942 in the Crijopol re ...

, poet, writer, journalist, and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

* Oles Honchar, writer, public figure, and Soviet Ukrainian

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

veteran *

Maria Kapnist Maria Rostyslavivna Kapnist ( uk, Марі́я Ростисла́вівна Капні́ст), née Marietta Rostyslavivna Kapnist-Sirko (9 (22) March 1913 – 25 October 1993, Kyiv) was a Ukrainian actress, Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR ...

, film actress *

Tetiana Yakovenko Tetiana Vasylivna Yakovenko ( uk, Тетяна Василівна Яковенко; born, May 16, 1954) is a Ukrainian poet, literary critic, and teacher. Since 1988, she has been a member of the National Writers' Union of Ukraine. Her awards inc ...

, poet, literary critic, teacher *

Olena Teliha Olena Ivanivna Teliha ( uk, Олена Іванівна Теліга, July 21, 1906 – February 21, 1942) was a Ukrainian poet and Ukrainian activist of Ukrainian and Belarusian ethnicity. Biography Olena Teliha was born in the village of Ilyi ...

, poet, literary critic, member of The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists

References

External links

* (in Ukrainian) {{Authority control Ukrainian literature Cultural organizations based in Ukraine

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Institutions with the title of National in Ukraine