Tamara Gorikha Zernia and Victoria Amelina shortlisted for prestigious Hotlist 2025 literary award

The novel “Donezk Girl” (“Daughter” in English translation) by Ukrainian author, translator, and volunteer Tamara Gorikha Zernia Duda, along with the book “Looking at Women Looking at War” by Victoria Amelina, are finalists for Hotlist 2025, an esteemed German literary prize.

The list consists of 30 German-language publications selected from 184 submissions.

“Donezk Girl” was published in German in 2025 by Friedrich Mauke (Weimar), publisher.

“What is it like when the unimaginable becomes reality? In her novel ‘Donezk Girl,’ Duda describes how Donetsk changed irrevocably in the spring of 2014. How people, houses, entire neighborhoods were destroyed by Russian mercenaries, and looting and violence became everyday occurrences. Authentic, exciting, oppressive. A true anti-war novel,” organizers wrote.

The book was translated by a group of translators:

ANNEGRET BECKER studied linguistics, Slavic studies, Ukrainian studies, and economics in Greifswald and Olomouc.

LUKAS JOURA studied Slavic languages and social sciences as well as European studies at postgraduate level.

ALEXANDER KRATOCHVIL studied Slavic studies, Eastern European history, and German studies.

In Ukrainian, “Donezk Girl” was published in 2019 by the Bilka publishing house. The events of the book unfold in 2014, against the backdrop of the start of the war in eastern Ukraine. The novel portrays the twists and turns of the war in Donbas from the perspective of a female volunteer.

RELATED: Women at war: Acclaimed Ukrainian novel bridges fragility, mysticism and resilience

“Blick auf Frauen den Krieg im Blick” by Victoria Amelina (“Looking at Women Looking at War” in English translation) contains a collection of stories about Ukrainian women who are taking part in the fight against Russian occupiers or supporting the war effort.

At first, the book was intended to be a collection of reports on Ukrainian women who document Russia’s crimes, but its structure became more complex. It now features diary entries, essays, historical research, interview excerpts, and even poetry. The book’s protagonists include a Truth Hounds documentarian with the call sign “Casanova,” journalists and reporters Yevheniia Podobna and Vira Kuryko-Ahiienko, human rights activists Oleksandra Matviichuk, Larysa Denysenko, and Kateryna Rashevska, historian Olena Stiazhkina, writer Svitlana Povaliayeva, director of the Kharkiv Literary Museum Tetyana Pylypchuk, librarian Yulia Kakulia-Danyluk, lawyer and military officer Yevhenia Zakrevska, social activist Iryna Dovhan, and poet Iryna Novytska, the former wife of murdered writer Volodymyr Vakulenko. The book’s photographs were taken by Yulia Kochetova.

Unfortunately, Amelina did not finish the book because she was killed in a Russian missile strike on Kramatorsk in 2023.

“The book about women investigating Russian war crimes in Ukraine by an author who was hit by a Russian missile while working on it. Posthumously completed by four editors, including Amelina’s widower and Tetyana Teren from PEN Ukraine,” is written on the website.

The book was published in German in March 2025 by edition.fotoTAPETA. The book was translated by Steffen Beilich and Andreas Rostek.

The ten winners will be announced on Sept. 9, 2025. Also, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, the jury will award two additional prizes: the Hotlist Prize (€5,000) and the Dörlemann ZuSatz (€1,500).

The Hotlist Literary Prize has been given each year since 2009 for the best German-language book published by an independent publisher in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland.

RELATED: ‘Her new sisters will grow from the earth, and again will sing joyfully of life’: How Victoria Amelina’s endeavors live on

Image: TAZ

Copy editing: Joy Tataryn