Writer's Union of Ukraine
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
National Writer's Union of Ukraine (Ukrainian: Національна Спілка Письменників України) - a voluntary social-creative association of professional writers, poets, prosaists, playwrighters, critics, and translators.
The NSPU was founded in 1934 as a part of the Writer's Union of the former USSR.
In post-communist time, the Writer's Union of Ukraine declared its independence from any Soviet structures (1991).
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 present head of the National Writer's Union of Ukraine is Volodymyr Yavorivsky. 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 centre of Ukraine and large cities.
The NSPU has special literary awards to honour the best achievements in corresponding fields, among which are Lesia Ukrainka Prize, the Ivan Franko Prize, the Pavlo Tychyna Prize, the Maksym Rylsky Prize, "Blahovist" (Church Bells), and others.
