Lone witnesses and guardians of the Light. Poets - nominees for the Shevchenko Prize-2026

Your columnist knows Leonid Logvinenko from a long time ago, when we worked in the editorial offices of regional newspapers on parallel floors.

An excellent journalist and master of photo reportage, Leonid, including risking his life next to the fighters at the front, with penetrating power captures the images of our contemporaries in his lens: soldiers and clergy, children, the elderly and adults, showing us the world of our life, death and resilience.

His poetry was a discovery for me during the war.

His collection of poems and songs "The Call of the Silver Wolf" is illustrated with his own photographs.

As stated in the presentation of the V.G. Korolenko Kharkiv State Scientific Library, "in the image of the silver wolf personifies a lonely witness and guardian of the light, a person who has not lost his dignity even among the ruins. This image combines poetry, photography and the author's spiritual experience, creating a multilayered artistic code of the book"

I understand with my mind how difficult it was for the members of the jury of the Shevchenko Committee to choose a "long list" (from which only a few will reach the final), and my soul regrets that Leonid is not in the second round.

The Shevchenko Committee, as always, gathered in the "long list" poets of different generations with different voices, which seem to merge into the polyphony of our era. And Ukraine is reflected in this mirror.

Read more in the Ukrainian edition....