Shandi Mitchell wins Kobzar Literary Award (Canada)

The $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award, a prize which uniquely honours books with a Canadian-Ukrainian theme, was presented to author Shandi Mitchell at a gala ceremony in Toronto on Thursday evening. Mitchell, who lives in Nova Scotia, was recognized for her 2009 debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky, which tells the story of a Ukrainian-Canadian family living on the Prairies during the Great Depression. The jury - authors Denise Chong, Randall Maggs, Nino Ricci, and M.G. Vassanji - described the book as a "compelling and poignant narrative that honours the ancestry of many Canadian Ukrainians who worked for a better life during the depression era." Under This Unbroken Sky previously won the 2010 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize (Caribbean and Canada) for Best First Book