The results of the Zlenko Literary Local History Contest were summarized in Odesa

The jury of the Hryhoriy Zlenko All-Ukrainian Literary Local History Contest, held in Odesa on November 7, the writer's birthday, summarized the results.

The contest was organized by the staff of the Odesa National Scientific Library in memory of their colleague Hryhorii Zlenko, who worked fruitfully at the library for over 40 years.

The project aimed to stimulate the development and further enhancement of the traditions of literary local history, to deepen the understanding of the ethnic, regional, national and civic identity of the inhabitants of Ukraine through the prism of the artistic word and literature that reflects the cultural, historical, social and other contexts of the historical, geographical and ethnocultural regions, districts and individual settlements of Ukraine.

The contest was held for the first time and was attended by authors from Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Ternopil, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv, Kremenchuk, Verkhnodniprovsk, Balta, and Odesa.

The winners were chosen in four nominations:

Literary, artistic, and memorial projects

• A first-degree diploma was awarded to Halyna Dolnyk, Svitlana Kucherenko, and Ihor Stambol for the Lipovske Readings (2000-2025) research and educational project;
• A second-degree diploma was awarded to Anton Hryskov for a series of articles about the Ukrainian poet of the Executed Renaissance, Arkadii Kazka (1890-1929), published in the Black Sea News newspaper;
• Diploma of Laureate of the Third Degree - to Maria Payonk, Head of the Department of Local History Literature and Bibliography of the Ternopil Regional Universal Scientific Library, for the bibliographic index "Ulas Samchuk (1905-1987): "God put a pen in my hands".

Works of fiction and literary studies:

• The first place was given to Viktoriia Korytnyanska for her essay "Poetess Martyr Valentyna Orlych" published in the Deribasivska-Rishelievska almanac;
• The second prize went to Yevhen Bezus for his book Ukrainian Herodotus from Verkhniodniprovsk.

Two first places were awarded in the Web Resources nomination to Olena Dmytrieva for her web resource Volodymyr Aleksandrov. "An Unwavering Representative of the Ukrainian Word in Kharkiv" and to the Odesa Regional Library for Youth in the category of radio and television programs for a film presentation dedicated to a young Odesa writer Hanna Kostenko. The authors: Lina Sukhareva and Tetiana Velychko.

The award ceremony is scheduled for March 3, 2026, on International Writers' Day.

Кирило Бойко