Poet and literary activist receives jubilee medal (02/02/03)

Poet and literary activist receives jubilee medal

by Oksana Zakydalsky

TORONTO - Lydia Palij - well-known organizer of writers from Ukraine for the annual International Festival of Authors, spokesman for Ukrainian dissidents in the Canadian branch of PEN International, active member of several Canadian literary associations and a widely published essayist and poet in her own right - has been awarded a Golden Jubilee Medal.

The commemorative medal was created to mark Queen Elizabeth's golden jubilee, as queen of Canada. It is being awarded to "Canadian citizens who have made an outstanding and exemplary contribution to the community or to Canada as a whole." Nominations were made by communities and organizations; Ms. Palij was proposed by the Festival of Authors organization. The medal itself is gold-plated bronze, bearing an effigy of The Queen on one side and a stylized maple leaf on the other. The Medal is worn suspended from a broad royal blue ribbon.

Ms. Palij has written: "I have always believed that our duty in the diaspora is to work to disseminate information about Ukraine in the countries where we live. In 1986 I became a member of PEN International to help imprisoned Ukrainian writers. My particular responsibility was the poet Mykola Horbal who was then in Soviet camp 398/36. I wrote letters to him, to his family and to the commandant of the camp. Although from the experience of PEN it was known that most of the letters did not reach their destinations, the fact that the regime knew that these letters were being sent did help the prisoner. At the same time I kept the Canadian press informed about the situation in Ukraine at the time, established links with reporters, some of whom occasionally still turn to me for information."

"When Ukraine was launched on its road to independence, I turned to another project. Thanks to my acquaintance with the director of the International Festival of Authors, I was able, after two years of trying and many difficulties, to have Ivan Drach read at the festival. This was 1989, Drach had just become president of Rukh and he not only acquainted the Toronto literati with Ukrainian literature but made a political splash. In subsequent years, I was able to facilitate invitations and find financial resources so that many other Ukrainian writers could take part in the festival: Ihor Kalynets, Vasyl Horoborodko, Mykola Vorobiov, Oksana Zabuzhko, Yuri Andrukhovych and others."

With the support of the Writers' Union of Canada, in 1995, Ms. Palij delivered a shipment of over 600 English-and French-language books to the Vernadsky Library in Kyiv, travelling there with six other Union members.

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