I am delighted to announce that Dr. Zina Gimpelevich’s. The Portrayal of Jews in Modern Biełarusian Literature (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018) has won the Canadian Association of Slavists/Taylor & Francis Book Prize.
In the words of the prize committee’s final report: “Zina J. Gimpelevich has written a magisterial study on a topic that is both important and under-researched. She has shown that modern Belarusian literature stood out from other cultures of East-Central Europe because of its predominantly friendly and inclusive portrayal of the land’s substantial Jewish population. Gimpelevich’s thick volume presents a rich canvas of the modern Belarusian literary tradition covering writers both well-known (such as the Nobel Prize winner Svetlana Alexievich) and completely unfamiliar to the Western public. Gimpelevich has also done a great service to the profession by including in her study numerous English translations of Belarusian texts, some of which are being introduced for the first time into the Western academic discourse. A significant contribution to Slavic Studies, Gimpelevich’s book transcends disciplinary boundaries, and will be read with interest by scholars of Slavic literature, Jewish studies, and European history. Tastefully illustrated with woodcuts of Jewish life in Belarus, this book is clearly a labor of love for both the author and the press.”
Thank you to the members of the committee for their hard work and congratulations to Dr. Gimpelevich.
Dr. Alison Rowley
President, Canadian Association of Slavists
Professor, Department of History
Concordia University
Montreal, QC
Canada