Shortlist for Chytomo Award announced

The shortlist for the Chytomo Award was announced at an event at the Ukrainian national stand at the 75th Frankfurt Book Fair on Oct. 18.It was presented by the award’s international jury, which consists of seven experts in the field of book publishing and literature. Among them are representatives of both Ukrainian and international industry institutions of the book publishing field.

The shortlist of the nominees of the Chytomo Award was announced for the following three categories:

Ukrainian Book Ambassador category:

• Romana Romanyshyn & Andriy Lesiv (Art Studio Agrafka);
• Emma Shercliff And Founder Of Laxfield Literary Associates;
• Lviv Bookforum / NGO “Publishers’ Forum”
• Pen Ukraine
• Victoria Amelina (posthumously)

“I am becoming very unprofessional when I talk about Ukraine, because everything from Ukraine is connected with deep emotions to me. All participants, all nominees at this award are heroes. I cannot hold my emotions when I talk about Ukrainian writers, especially about killed writers… We need to unite our forces against the injustice. We can do this, we should do this,” said Gwantsa Jobava, the vice president of the International Publishers Association and a member of the Jury of the Chytomo Award.

Book Initiative That Promotes Reading category:

• Barabooka;
• Online Library Of Books In Braille Of The International Charitable Foundation “Health Of The Future”;
• Radio Culture — Literary Editorial;
• Youtube Channel ‘Shaleni Avtorky’;
• Translatorium NGO.

Yulia Kozlovets, the director of the “Book Arsenal” International Festival and a member of the Jury underlined that this category is about making Ukrainian Ukrainian and creating unity among Ukrainian readers. “This category is for people, who are very often volunteers, they want to spread love to the books and love to Ukrainian books in particular,” said Yulia Kozlovets, the director of the “Book Arsenal” International Festival and a member of the jury.

Book Publishing Market Trendsetter category:

• Anton Martynov;
• The Book Lion Bookstore;
• Ist Publishing independent publisher;
• The Old Lion Publishing House LLC;
• Oleksandr Savchuk Publishing House.

“I find it so amazing, that Ukrainian book publishers and creators have opportunity to create avant-garde books, which can influence others and give people strength,” said Vladka Kupska, chief manager of the Frankfurt Book Fair for work with the markets of Central and Eastern Europe and a member of the Jury.

Peter Kraus vom Cleff, Managing Director of the German Publishers Association said that the trendsetter category is “show of respect and gratefulness to Ukrainian publishers,”It is a call for them to keep on going, to keep on publishing. No matter the circumstances, they keep on publishing. There is the hunger for book in Ukraine, as it was in Germany after the war. It is astonishing,” he said

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“Each projects is unique – you can find niche publishing houses and big ones. It shows the scale, the geography and conditions of each nominee. You can have a real example whome you can follow,” underlined Iryna Baturevych, Chytomo Co-Founder.

We would like to remind you that the Frankfurt Book Fair will also award a Special Award, which will include not only a cash prize but also a stand in Frankfurt in 2024.

The Jury, with the support of the sponsors of the Award and having taken into account strong applications, also decided to award an additional special jury Award. Details will be announced later.

The jury members include:

• William Blacker (Great Britain), a Slavic scholar at University College London, a translator of Ukrainian literature and a member of the jury for the International Booker Prize 2023.
• Gwantsa Jobava (Georgia), vice president of the International Publishers Association.
• Yulia Kozlovets (Ukraine), director of the “Book Arsenal” International Festival.
• Vladka Kupska (Germany-Czech Republic), chief manager of the Frankfurt Book Fair for work with the markets of Central and Eastern Europe.
• Tetyana Teren (Ukraine), journalist and executive director of Ukrainian PEN.
• Oksana Khmelivska (Ukraine), co-founder of Chytomo.
• Volodymyr Sheyko (Ukraine), general director of the Ukrainian Institute.

The Chytomo Award Ceremony, featuring the finalists and jury members, will take place on Nov. 2 2023 in Kyiv, either in person or streamed online, depending on the circumstances. The list of winners will also be posted on this website.

Chytomo media has established the Award with the support of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association and the Frankfurter Buchmesse. Additionally, Germany’s Ministry of Culture, acting via its project to strengthen cooperation between German and Ukrainian book industries, has provided a monetary award of 4,000 euros in each category.