For my poetry and essays about Ukraine, I was awarded the 2014 Hryhorii Skovoroda prize, granted to a range of writers each year in honour of the 18th century wandering philosopher, poet and composer. In this personal essay about my trip to Lviv to collect the medal, accounts of my meetings with Ukrainian and Russian writers, refugees and human right activists are interspersed with reflections on Skovoroda's life and work, and its relevance to Ukraine's current conflict with Russia. Writers and translators discussed include Ihor Pavlyuk, Lyudmyla Pavlyuk, Steve Komarnyckyj, Tanya-Maria Lytvynyuk, A.D. Miller, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, Anna Arutunyan, Joseph T. Fuhrmann, Timothy Snyder and Slavoj Žižek.