Shandi Mitchell—award-winning Canadian director, screenwriter (Gasoline Puddles, The Hanging Garden, Beefcake and The Disappeared) and novelist—is the recipient of the biennial $25,000 Kobzar Literary Award for her debut novel, Under This Unbroken Sky (the novel also won the Thomas Head Raddall Fiction Award. Man, she's good).
Mitchell was presented the award by the president of the Shevchenko Foundation, the award's sponsors, at a swanky event at Toronto’s Palais Royale.
Mitchell dedicated the award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to Canadian literary arts through an author’s presentation of a Canadian Ukrainian theme, "for my Baba and the stories that she couldn't tell." Set in the 1930s, the novel tells the story of the Mykolayenko family braving the Canadian prairies and legal system while seeking justice and happiness. Review here. Read more about Mitchell here and here.
