Chytomo Award 2025 announces its shortlist

On January 6, the Chytomo Award—aimed at highlighting those who are transforming Ukraine’s publishing industry and making Ukrainian literature increasingly visible worldwide—announced its shortlists.

“The jury’s work this year did not encounter any major disagreements. Our views on who should be among the award finalists turned out to be quite similar, which is evidence that all shortlisted participants truly deserve their place there, and that their work over the past year has been visible not only in Ukraine,” emphasized this year’s jury chair, managing editor and head of the Chytomo public organization, Oleksandr Mymruk.

“This year, it is particularly telling that among the ambitions and achievements of the shortlisted nominees is the ability to retain and expand their readership. This is the most pressing challenge facing the market today, and addressing it is the task of both профильні institutions and cultural practitioners. Most likely, it is precisely the ability to attract and bring together new (as well as existing) readers that will determine what publishing in Ukraine looks like in the future. The past year has shown how difficult this is, especially against the backdrop of crises that continue to deepen in wartime conditions. That is why their achievements seem especially worthy of recognition,” noted Iryna Baturevych, co-founder of the Award and a member of its organizing committee.

The main partner of the 2025 Award is the International Renaissance Foundation. The Chytomo Award is also held in cooperation with the Frankfurt Book Fair. The cash prize for the winners will amount to UAH 150,000 (USD 3,500) in each category.

One of the nominated publishing entities in the “Publishing Market Trendsetter” category will also receive the Frankfurter Buchmesse Special Award, which includes a separate prize from the Award’s partner, the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Chytomo Award Shortlist (3 Categories)

Publishing Market Trendsetter

• Vivat Publishing Ltd
• Komubook Publishing House
• Sense Bookstore
• Ukrainian Book Institute
• Litosvita School of Creative and Professional Writing

Ambassador of the Ukrainian Book

• André Störr, CEO of Friedrich Mauke Verlag, Weimar, Germany
• Halyna Kruk, Ukrainian writer and translator
• Claudia Dathe, German translator, project coordinator at the University of Tübingen, and one of the initiators of the Translit network
• Dr. Oleh Kotsyuba, Director of Print and Digital Publications at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Editor-in-Chief of the online journal “Krytyka”
• Yuliya Kozlovets, Director of the International Book Arsenal Festival

Reading Promotion Book Initiative

• Nationwide Radio Dictation of National Unity
• NGO Frontera Literary Platform
• The “Book to the Front” initiative, Cultural Forces
• Nedopysani
• Kharkiv Literary Museum

Jury of the Chytomo Award 2025

Oleksandr Mymruk, Head of the Chytomo public organization and managing editor of the Chytomo book media

Hryhorii Baran, Director of the “Social Capital” Program at the International Renaissance Foundation

Anton Martynov, Founder of the Laboratory Publishing House and the Librarius.pro reading app

Vlatka Kupska (Germany-Czechia), Senior Manager at the Frankfurt Book Fair for Central and Eastern European markets

Svetlozar Zhelev (Bulgaria), Director of the National Book Center at the National Palace of Culture, member of the TRADUKI network program committee

Fiona Greenland (USA), Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, researcher of cultural heritage and the Ukrainian literary process

Sasha Dovzhyk, Head of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, writer and editor, project curator and cultural researcher

The ceremony announcing and awarding the winners of the Chytomo Award, with the participation of the finalists and jury members, will take place on January 29 in Kyiv.

The Award results will be published in open access on the Chytomo website.

As reported earlier, in 2025 the competition received 82 applications. Five nominees were selected in each of the three categories: “Publishing Market Trendsetter,” “Ambassador of the Ukrainian Book,” and “Reading Promotion Book Initiative.”