Vasyl Shklyar

Writer and political activist.

Was born in 1951 in Cherkashchyna. By the decision of the Committee of the National Prize of Ukraine he was recognized as the winner of the Shevchenko Prize 2011 (for the novel "Zalishenets. Chorny Raven" - about the events of the 1920s in Kholodniy Yar).

Vasil Shklyar became a student of Kyiv Shevchenko University in 1968, from which he was not taken away. He transferred to Yerevan University, which he graduated from in 1972.

After receiving his diploma he worked in the press, and since 1986 he started working as a writer. He wrote prose, published more than a dozen books, including the novels "Tin Owl", "Nostalgia", collections of novels and opovidaniya "Snow", "Zhivitsa". Member of the Ukrainian Writers' Union since 1978. From 1988 to 1998 he was engaged in political journalism, was in "hot spots". This experience was later reflected in the novel "Elemental".

Shklyar's political career began at the dawn of Ukraine's independence - in 1991 he became a member of the Ukrainian Republican Party.

In 1998 he ran for the Verkhovna Rada as a member of the National Front electoral bloc. Popularity as a writer came to him with the release of his novel "The Key" (1999).

From 2000 to 2004 he worked as the head editor of the publishing house "Dnipro".

Vasil Shklyar's name has gained special prominence due to his demonstrative refusal to accept the Shevchenko Prize in 2011. The motivation for such an action was that the post of the Minister of Science, Culture and Education in Ukraine was held by Dmytro Tabachnyk. Shklyar said that he would refuse from the high honorary position for the time when the odious official is in office.