The Chytomo team at this year’s awards ceremony (credit: Nastia Telikova).
By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
This is what strength and resilience looks like. On January 29—amid a brutal war, bone-chilling subzero temperatures, and widespread blackouts—the winners of the third annual Ukrainian Chytomo Awards, given to individuals and organizations for outstanding achievements in book publishing, were honored at an awards ceremony held in Kyiv.Chartered in 2023 by the Ukrainian book industry magazine Chytomo, organizers said this year’s competition received 82 nominations across three categories: Publishing Market Trendsetter; Ambassador of the Ukrainian Book; and Reading Promotion Book Initiative. In addition, the Frankfurter Buchmesse Special Award, which comes with a booth at the Frankfurt Buchmesse, was awarded to one of the nominees in the Publishing Market Trendsetter category.
The Chytomo Awards are sponsored by the International Renaissance Foundation, and held in cooperation with Frankfurter Buchmesse.
“I was deeply touched by how many people came to share this evening with us,” Chytomo co-founder Iryna Baturevych told Publishing Perspectives in an email. “More than 100 guests joined us to congratulate the winners. Given the weather disaster, the extreme drop in temperatures and the blackouts, I expected only a few people to come. But the opposite happened. When the situation gets worse, people try even harder to support one another and to celebrate good things, even in the face of an apocalypse.”
Courtesy of Chytomo, this year’s winners include:
Book Publishing Market Trendsetter 2025: Sense Bookstore
Sense Bookstore’s Viktoriia Sereda and Nadiia Vovk, winners in the Trendsetter category (Photo by Nastia Telikova).
“This year, during the war, Sense Bookstore opened a new bookstore, held numerous events, and made tremendous efforts to promote Ukrainian literature in Ukraine among Ukrainian readers. It is truly impressive,” said Svetlozar Zhelev (Bulgaria), Director of the National Book Center at the National Palace of Culture, member of the TRADUKI network program committee. “I am sure that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people will win this war. Thank you for protecting us in Bulgaria and throughout Europe from Russia.”
Ukrainian Book Ambassador 2025: Yuliia Kozlovets
Accepting on behalf of Yuliia Kozlovets, Olesia Ostrovska-Liuta, and Oleksandra Boyko (Book Arsenal) (Photo by Nastia Telikova).
“Kozlovets’ influence reaches far beyond individual projects,” said Fiona Greenland (USA), Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, a researcher of cultural heritage and the Ukrainian literary process. “Thanks to her strategic leadership, the International Book Arsenal Festival has become a key professional platform for cooperation between publishers, translators, authors, and cultural institutions. She has set a new standard for professional collaboration and helped establish Ukrainian books in the world as symbols of contemporary culture, intellectual resilience, and freedom. The programs and partnerships created by Kozlovets are already shaping a new generation of specialists and ambassadors of Ukrainian literature. Her work ensures that the Ukrainian voice remains strong and present on the world stage.”
Publishing Perspectives interviewed Kozlovets about her work last fall on the “On the Books” podcast.
Book Initiative That Promotes Reading 2025: The Book to the Front
Andrii Ovcharuk, Books to the Frontline initiative (Photo by Nastia Telikova).
“This year, the award goes to the Book to the Front initiative by the Cultural Forces NGO, which I supported. Thanks to this project, thousands, tens of thousands, of books are reaching Ukrainian defenders, whether at service, in hospitals, or in rehabilitation centers,” said Sasha Dovzhyk, Head of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange, writer, editor, project curator, and cultural researcher. “It is a moving story about the connection between the home front and the battlefield, about supporting our defenders, and about preserving the continuity of thought and memory.”
Frankfurter Buchmesse Special Award 2025: The Osnovy Publishing House
The Publishing team from Osnovy Publishing House, winners of the Special Award from the Frankfurter Buchmesse (Photo by Nastia Telikova).
“Thanks to the efforts of Osnovy Publishing House, the market is receiving high-quality literature that is thoughtful, relevant, and expertly crafted,” Vladka Kupska (Germany-Czechia), Senior Manager at Frankfurter Buchmesse for Central and Eastern European markets, said. “With this award, we want to recognize the courage with which the publishing house reinterprets tradition, transforming it into something alive and forward-looking.”
‘Driven Not By Fear’
This year’s jury for the Chytomo Award included:
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; Vladka 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; Fiona Greenland (U.S.A.), Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia, researcher of cultural heritage and the Ukrainian literary process; and Sasha Dovzhyk, Head of INDEX: Institute for Documentation and Exchange.
“What impressed me most was the professionalism that became the norm even during the war,” said Anton Martynov, in a statement. “Many of the nominees did not just hold on. They continued to systematically build processes, plan, and invest effort in editorial quality and long-term projects. The Ukrainian book community is now driven not by fear or romanticism, but by a sense of responsibility for the cultural space.”