Book Arsenal is looking for Ukrainian writers to participate in the second cycle of the CELA project, which will run from October 2025 to July 2027.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international talent development project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the EU. CELA connects emerging writers from 11 European countries with emerging translators through masterclasses, sample translations, mentorship, presentations, and live meetings.

We are looking for people who:

• write prose in Ukrainian (except for books for children under 14);
• have 1-3 prose books published by Ukrainian publishers (except for books for children under 14);
• are willing to devote time and effort to promote the translation of their book abroad, participate in project activities, and communicate with partner organisations and other participants.

If you are interested in joining the project, please fill out the application form and upload a synopsis and a sample of up to 2,500 words from the book you propose for translation by 12 August 2025.

TO APPLY

The jury will select books by three authors who can best represent contemporary Ukrainian literature in Europe to participate in the project. The results of the selection will be announced on 1 October 2025 on the Book Arsenal website and our social media pages.

Before submitting your application, please read the Terms and Conditions for participation in the project.

 TERMS AND CONDITIONS

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].

The project includes:

• translation of a sample from your most recent book into 10 European languages;
• publication of this sample on the CELA website and other literary platforms across Europe;
• international online masterclasses on relevant professionalisation topics;
• mentorship programme;
• professional communication tool kit with headshot and artist bio and an online portfolio;
• 1 live national team meeting in Ukraine;
• 1 live project-wide work week in Brussels, Belgium (June 3-6, 2026);
• 1 visit to a literary festival in one of the participating countries to present your sample text together with your translator;
• connection to an international network of more than 300 writers, translators and literary organisations in Europe.

The jury consists of:

• Rostyslav Semkiv — mentor to the Ukrainian writers participating in the CELA project.
• Alla Tatarenko — mentor to translators from Serbian for the Ukrainian team of the CELA project.
• Oksana Ziobro — literary consultant for the Ukrainian team of the CELA project.
• Valentyna Sotnykova — head of the literature and book department at Mystetskyi Arsenal.

We can implement this project through elaborate funding applications and the dedicated work of all partner organisations: Next Page Foundation (Bulgaria); deBuren (Belgium); Passa Porta (Belgium); Scuola Holden (Italy); Krakow Festival Office (Poland); FILIT (Romania); KROKODIL (Serbia); GOGA (Slovenia); Escuela de Escritores (Spain); Czech Literary Centre (Czech Republic); Wintertuin (The Netherlands, also project coordinator).

CELA project is funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

The team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined the CELA European project for the first time in 2024. CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists is networking of emerging literary artists that involves young writers and translators from 11 European countries in cooperation through mentoring, masterclasses and meetings.

CELA events within the 13th Book Arsenal:

• 30 May, 11:30 (Workshop Area)
  Pitching of translations by CELA project participants. Moderated by Oksana Ziobro.
  Translators who have translated excerpts of texts into Ukrainian as part of the CELA project will pitch them to Ukrainian publishers.
• 31 May, 12:00 (Lecture Hall)
  Translator’s dialogue: beginners and professionals. Differences in experience, challenges, fears, achievements, and tools. Participants: Alla Tatarenko, Mariana Klymets, Yuliia Stakhivska, Oleksandra Laktionova. Moderated by Oksana Ziobro.

A conversation with the translators and mentors of the CELA project about their experience, challenges, fears, achievements, and tools in translation.

• 31 May, 13:00 (Lecture Hall)

Workshop for emerging translators “How to get a publisher interested?” Speakers: Oksana Ziobro, Maximu Andre Martynenko Shchehlov.
A workshop by Oksana Ziobro, a literary consultant at the CELA project in Ukraine, on how young translators can find a publisher.

• 31 May, 14:30 (Author Stage)

Networking for emerging writers: readings of translations by CELA project participants. Participants: Magdalena Sodomkova (Czech Republic), Julia Lukovniak (Slovenia), Olga Futoran, Yuliia Stankevych.

This is a reading of Ukrainian translations of excerpts from texts by Magdalena Sodomkova (Czech Republic) and Julia Lukovniak (Slovenia), with the participation of the authors and their translators.

See you at the 13th International Book Arsenal Festival!

The CELA project is a training program for translators and a joint international experience with colleagues, also translators, from 11 European participating countries. One of the important components of this extensive process is the support from mentors in the professional development throughout the whole duration of the project.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international project of cooperation and development of literary talents, promotion and distribution of literary works, involving 12 literary organizations from 11 countries of the world. And this is already the third iteration of CELA. In 2024, the team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined this large-scale European project for the first time. It is designed for four years, more details can be found here.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.

On Friday, September 27, the national team of the CELA project met at the TRANSLATORIUM Literary and Translation Festival in Khmelnytskyi.

We were glad to see each other in person and talk with the literary consultant Oksana Ziobro and one of three writers from the Ukrainian team—Anastasia Levkova.

We were also very glad to welcome translators from teams of other countries: Dragana Vasilevič (Serbia), Claudia Betiol (Italy), Magdalena Ukrainec (Poland), who would translate from Ukrainian within this project. The opportunity to attend discussions, lectures, readings and book presentations, that took place within the festival, was a pleasant addition to our meeting.

We are grateful to the VII Literary and Translation Festival TRANSLATORIUM for the invitation and hospitality. This year, the relations between translation and memory were explored at the festival. And how today the transformations of these notions and the points of intersection between them shape cultural processes and continuity.

Let us remind you that in 2024 the team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined the CELA European project for the first time. CELA: Connecting Emerging Literary Artists is networking of emerging literary artists that involves young writers and translators from 11 European countries in cooperation through mentoring, masterclasses and meetings.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.

On September 4, the CELA project’s third edition opening event was held online through Zoom with the CELA partners’ staff, mentors, literary consultants, and invited guest speaker Oksana Zabuzhko.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international talent development project co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the EU. It is a 4-year project that connects emerging translators from 11 European countries (10 languages) with emerging writers through masterclasses, sample translations, mentorship, presentations and live meetings. Book Arsenal became a participant of the CELA project for the first time in 2024.

The Ukrainian writer Oksana Zabuzhko was invited to present a lecture during CELA opening event on the status quo of European literature, the relevance of translation and it’s impact in current times. 

Some quotes and questions from the Oksana Zabuzhko’s lecture:

Literature is a kind of thermometer that shows the change in the temperature long before the disease starts. Literature already shows signs that there are some issues with our values. <…> Now its up to you, the future of Europe is in your hands. You are the blood vessels of Europe; you make Europe whole, and you keep it whole. Without this wholeness, we end up with replacing values and knowledge. Keeping it alive is your translator’s mission! Good luck!

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is networking of emerging literary artists, an international talent development project co-funded by the EU programme Creative Europe. CELA involves young writers and translators from 11 European countries in cooperation through mentoring, masterclasses and meetings. The project aims at providing literary artists, representatives of small languages, with equal conditions to build an international career, to reach an international audience and to develop professional skills. The project is designed for four years and is taking place for the third time.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.

The International Book Arsenal Festival, in cooperation with Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) and with the financial support of the European Union, has selected three writers for the project. They are Eugenia Kuznetsova, Myroslav Laiuk and Anastasiia Levkova.

Within the first cycle of the project, a prose work of each selected Ukrainian author will be translated into 9 European languages ​​by members of other national teams from:

• Spain;
• Italy;
• the Czech Republic;
• Poland;
• the Netherlands;
• Serbia;
• Slovenia;
• Romania;
• Bulgaria.

Excerpts from these translations will also be published on the CELA website and other European literary platforms.

Within the project, Eugenia Kuznetsova, Anastasiia Levkova and Myroslav Laiuk will participate in two international masterclasses on professional growth, will receive mentoring support concerning international promotion and cases of professional communication (artist bio, portfolio, photo, etc.). In addition, they will take part in networking meetings with writers and translators of the CELA network during visits to literary festivals and team meetings of the project participating countries.

Rostyslav Semkiv, consultant of the CELA project, Docent the Department of Literature at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, director of the Smoloskyp Publishing House, author of books about writing, spoke about the selection of authors and the value of the project:

Recently, prose has changed considerably. It has become more skillful, more experimental. On the other hand, not least due to the development of writing courses, people have begun working harder on texts. More high quality prose appears. I think the situation is no worse than in the 1920s or 1960s. Are there more masterpieces? I do not know, at least a lot of strong books come out.

Connecting Emerging Literary Artists (CELA) is an international project of cooperation and development of literary talents, promotion and distribution of literary works, involving 12 literary organizations from 11 countries of the world. And this is already the third iteration of CELA. In 2024, the team of the International Book Arsenal Festival joined this large-scale European project for the first time. It is designed for four years, more details can be found here.

The CELA project is funded by the European Union. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the funding body can be held responsible for them.