Lithuanian Publishers Association awards publishing professionals of the year

The Lithuanian Publishers Association has announced the laureates of the K.A.2.0.2.5. award. This award recognizes outstanding publishers, literary critics, and translators. 

The K.A.2.0.2.5. literary award named laureates in 11 categories. Among the winners:

Translator of the Year: Donatai Rinkevičienei

Donata Rinkevičienei translates from Ukrainian— in 2021, she translated books by Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv, including “Sound: Shhh . . . Bang . . . POP . . . BOOM!”, “Sight: Glimmer, Glow, SPARK, FLASH!”, and “How War Changed Rondo”. Her recent translations include “Something Is Wrong With Me” by Andriy Lyubka and “Rock, Paper, Grenade” by Artem Chekh. She was awarded for her dedication and the relevance of her translations.

New Approach Category Winner: Illustrator Sigutei Chlebinskaitei

This award was given for her special attention to the design of Dalios Staponkutės’ novel “Vivat Regina!”, published in 2024 by Apostrofa.

Book Design of the Year: Designer Laurai Grigaliūnaite

She was recognized for the “rich visualization of content” in Ieva Balčiūnė’s book “Pets. Abandonment of Children in Soviet Lithuania” (Augintiniai Atsikratymas vaikais sovietmečio Lietuvoje), published by Aukso žuvys in 2024.

Voice of the Year: Matas Sigliukas

This category (sponsored by “Audioteka LT”) awards audiobook narrators. Matas Sigliukas was recognized for his narration of Saulius Šaltenis’ audiobook “Walnut Bread”, praised for “perfectly conveying the spirit of the text, the ironic tone of narration, and the atmosphere of the time through voice.”

Book as an Event Award: “The Child Who Grieves” (Tiksintis vaikas) by Aleksandros Kašubos

This book, published by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, was awarded for its “literary aristocracy”.

Lithuanian Publisher of the Year: Alma littera

This publisher was recognized for its contribution to literary processes, its high-quality publication of popular literature, and its promotion of Lithuanian content.

Phenomenon of the Year: The Vilnius Book Fair

The fair was awarded for 25 years of contributions to literature, creating a community of curators and readers and fostering a reading culture.

Literary Editor’s Award “Golden Lens”: Audra Kairienė

She was recognized for her long-standing dedication to her work, meticulous editing of fiction and humanities texts important to Lithuanian culture, and mentoring of writers and literary translators.

“Book Friend” Award: Benediktas Januševičius

This Lithuanian poet was honored for “documenting literary life.”

Illustration of the Year Award: Kornelija Žalpytė

This artist received the award for combining various illustration techniques to create a narrative text in the book “My Friend, the Unicorn Hippocamp” by Jurga Vilė.

Literary Criticism Award – Kęstutis Keblis Prize: Virginijai Kulvinskaitei

This critic was recognized for her “broad perspective on reality.”

K.A.2.0.2.x is a publishing award established in 2023 by the Lithuanian Publishers Association, which is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture. The goal of this award is to recognize publishers’ efforts, highlight the diversity of the publishing process, and emphasize the importance of each stage and participant in the publishing journey. In the long term, the aim is to enhance the overall quality of the publishing process. The award is open to publishers, writers, translators, editors, designers, literary critics, and printers.

RELATED: Three best translated books of 2023 revealed in Lithuania

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn