Chytomo report 2024: money raised, books published, and partnerships built

2024 tested our resilience as an editorial team, and 2025 is shaping up to be no easier — for us or for any organization dedicated to culture, human rights, or nonprofit work. Yet, despite the challenges, we remained committed to telling the stories that matter. As we refine our strategies for the future, we invite you to take a moment to reflect on what we achieved together over the past year.

We managed to stay online thanks to the support of the Ministry for Culture and the Media of Germany, the Ukrainian Book Institute (UBI), as well as our patrons and volunteers. Chytomo English continues to inform the international audience about events in Ukraine and book publishing in other countries. 

In total, we published 204 news pieces, and 120 features and interviews in English, and 1219 news pieces and 298 stories, features, and interviews in Ukrainian. 

The best of them were reprinted/translated for professional publications in English, German, French, Italian, Romanian, and many other languages.

We are proud to share our news and features with Boersenblatt (Germany), Publisher’s Weekly (USA), Publishing Perspectives (USA), Giornale della Libreria (Italy), Livres Hebdo (France), Aldus K-HUB (Italy), Literary magazine TIMPUL (România). Some articles were reprinted simultaneously in three editions.

Our publications became newsworthy or were quoted in publications with an international audience. The New York Times quoted our article about Mykola Khvylovyi, The Guardian and the Irish Independent mentioned the story of Words and Bullets, The Telegraph told about Maksym Kryvtsov, and radio versions of the publication in memory of Victoria Amelina were broadcast on the national European radio stations German Deutschlandfunk kultur and Spanish National Radio, Global News (Canada) mentioned the destruction of the Factor-Druk workshop, La Presse (Canada) and The Reporter (Taiwan) wrote about Ukrainian book publishing, Le Devoir (Canada) wrote about Halyna Kruk’s poetry, and the French newspaper La Croix talked about translations from Ukrainian.

German Deutschlandfunk kultur also published reports about the Book Shelter in Kharkiv, just before the Frankfurt Book Fair, where the winner of Chytomo Award 2023, publisher Oleksandr Savchuk, was presented with a separate stand, as well as about the publishing activities of Ukrainians in the DP camps.

We also talked to Velocity of Content (USA), Silicon Curtain (UK), Ukraine.World (Ukraine).

We are proud to say the above mentioned in partial and this is not a complete list. We believe that our work helps Ukrainian authors to be heard abroad more and more often.

Two Books by Chytomo (We are actively seeking publishers in 2025!)

In 2024, after a pause since 2021 when Chytomo released its first book dedicated to the history of Ukrainian art periodicals, “Tall Copies XX” (“Exemplary XX”), we launched new book projects.

In 2024, Vivat Publishing published “Words and Bullets,” a collection of interviews by Natalya Korniyenko from our special project on Ukrainian authors and journalists who became military or volunteers.

Unfortunately, the print run of “Words and Bullets” was destroyed during the Russian attack on the Factor-Druk printing shop. Several books that partially survived were shown at the “Books Destroyed by Russia” exhibitions in Ukraine, Hungary, and Canada.

With the support of readers and the hard work of the publishing house, “Words and Bullets” has been released in a new edition and is now on sale in Ukrainian.

In January, a new book “Kulturni” by Books and Cartoons was published (available in Ukrainian). Last year, the Chytomo editorial team prepared such sections as “Language,” “Literature,” “Print Media outlets,” and “Publishing,” which included about 80 key facts about books and culture.

In 2025, we plan to continue working on new books and looking for a publisher for the Erasure of Word project.

Funds we raised in 2024

In carrying out such a variety of projects, Chytomo tried to find a balance between what was important and what was feasible. Almost every project, or even a series of features, could have been strategically expanded into an independent initiative.

In 2024, the Chytomo team continued to apply for grants, but there were significantly fewer opportunities than the previous two years. Grant funds raised during previous years allowed us to survive in 2024. In total, we applied for 13 grants, winning six for specific projects: we conducted research in the Ukrainian labor market, started the preparation for the Chytomo Award 2024, and published special projects.

The search for grants, institutional support, and large, sustainable partnerships continues to be one of our biggest challenges. Some grant givers have dramatically cut their spending on the cultural sector, while the demands for reporting, documentation, audience engagement, and media coverage remain the same. This is draining and leaves little room for strategic planning or rest. Support from funders is crucial to answering the question of how we manage to keep going.

The amount of grant funds raised for both editorials (English and Ukrainian) reached USD $85 thousand, which covered 79% of the editorial expenses. The Chytomo Club raised USD $13 thousand — 13% of our budget. Small revenues from advertising and Ukrainian commercial partnerships saved the day, providing USD $8 thousand (8% budget that in previous years amounted to only 3%).

These expense allocations enabled us to finish the year with a small financial cushion and cover one month ahead. 

Most of the money we raised came from non-Ukrainian organizations, and we see this as a contribution to supporting both the country’s economy and individual creative initiatives during difficult times. 

Just as in 2023, thanks to the Chytomo Award, we were able to support initiatives showing important achievements in book publishing over the year, amounting to USD $9 thousand, and provide a stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the winner of the Special prize.

Our special projects

Having applied for five different grants for the “Words and Bullets” project at the beginning of 2024 and failing to receive a positive response, we decided to continue the project on our own. We understand how important the project is and we want to continue telling about the experiences of Ukrainian authors who are currently defending our country in the ranks of the Defense Forces and those who are actively helping the army as volunteers. Fortunately, our partners at PEN Ukraine were able to help with co-financing.

“Erasure of Word” is the largest special project among this year’s projects on Chytomo. It is a mosaic of materials about Russia’s colonial erasure efforts of Ukrainian literature from the 18th century to the present day. “Erasure of Word” was created in partnership with the Kharkiv Literary Museum. We invested most of our time and resources in this project, involving eminent researchers, because its goal completely coincided with our strategic goals for the next three years. Unfortunately, due to frozen USAID programs, we haven’t received any funds to cover our expenses for this project.

In 2024, we added “Ukrainian classics” to our regular section with longreads and included texts about Jewish cultural figures of Ukrainian descent. This became possible thanks to our cooperation with the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter Foundation. We are preparing texts about Paul Celan, Zuzanna Ginczanka, Bruno Schulz, Joseph Roth, Stanisław Lem, and many others.

A series of extensive interviews with the winners of the “Encounter: The Ukrainian-Jewish Literary Prize” became a part of this cooperation. Among them are conversations with Sofia Andrukhovych, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, and the most recent winner of the prize, Yuriy Skira.

Chytomo conducted a survey on human resources in the Ukrainian book market influenced by the war, barriers, and drivers in the career of the representatives of the book industry — with the support of the British Council in Ukraine and in partnership with CAT-UA (Communication Analysis Team — Ukraine) and Translatorium Literary Festival. Read the results in the report “Growth that we can’t handle: Results of a survey on human resources in the Ukrainian book market influenced by the war”.

The key project on Chytomo English this year was Chytomo Picks: New Books and Classics from Ukraine, and it became our way to keep this part of the work going. It was a continuation of the Chytomo Picks: New Books from Ukraine project. In this project, we wrote 22 articles about more than 50 publications, both contemporary Ukrainian books that have already been translated into other languages and classic Ukrainian works that have the potential to be published. Implementation of the project was possible with the support of the Ukrainian Book Institute.

In 2023, announcing the establishment of the Chytomo Award for the first time, our editorial team sought to find ways to make this event annual. With a slight delay, but thanks to the Renaissance Foundation’s help and the support of the Goethe Institute and the Frankfurt Book Fair, we announced the winners of 2024. Furthermore, we are already preparing to organize the Chytomo Award for the third time.

To commemorate our dear colleague Alla Pushkarchuk (“Ruta”), a journalist and soldier, in cooperation with PEN Ukraine, Chytomo organized the exhibition “Betelgeuse: A Necklace for Ruta.” Ruta was killed on April 25, 2024, as a result of a missile attack in Udachne village, Donetsk oblast. The exhibition in Alla Pushkarchuk’s memory featured the late journalist’s photographic, ceramic, and poetic works, as well as the necklaces she loved so much and wore over her military uniform.

Partnership for sustainability

We actively worked on both large special projects and a series of articles created in partnership. These include:

• A series of articles about the winners of the “Encounter: Ukrainian Jewish Literary Prize”™;
• A series of materials about writers with a Jewish identity whose work and life were connected with Ukraine;
• A series of analytical materials with insights and interviews from the Frankfurt Book Fair;
• A series of materials about literary museums supported by the MHP Gromadi Charitable Foundation;
• A series of interviews with foreign publishing experts in cooperation with the International Book Arsenal Festival;
• A series of materials Chytomo Review 2024, where we summarized all the most important trends of the year (with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Ukraine)
• The Ambassadors series curated by Olha Mukha (on our own and with the support of the Ukrainian Book Institute).

This year, we have also worked in cooperation with the following partners: the Old Lion Publishing House, Ranok, Zhorzh, Kalamar, Anthology, Compass, Vydavnytstvo, Irbis-Comics, Chas Maistriv, NGO Translatorium Literary Festival, Meridian Czernowitz, NGO Frontera, Frankfurt Book Fair, the International Book Arsenal Festival, Culture Hub, MHP Gromadi Charitable Foundation, Cultural Hub, adidas. ua, Buki School, UNICEF, Books&Cartoons, MOYO, the Ukrainian Decolonial Glossary project, and Booyya courses.

Chytomo Club — become a part of like-minded people!

Over the course of 2024, we have been supported by the Chytomo community — ideologically, emotionally, and financially — and we are extremely grateful. We keep in touch with Chytomo Club members not only through a special chat, but also through monthly digests with insights from the team. In addition, members of the Chytomo Club received book gifts, both offline and online.

A friendly reminder! There are several ways to join the Chytomo Club: subscribe to our Patreon, or subscribe to Buy me a coffee.