The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program 2025 has received applications from 20 countries and territories. Following a competitive selection process, eight participants have been chosen for this year’s program — publishers, literary agents, and rights managers from Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, and Sweden.
A dedicated networking space will be available for meetings between Ukrainian and international publishing professionals within the XIII International Book Arsenal Festival on Friday, May 30, from 14:00 to 19:00, and Saturday, May 31, from 11:00 to 19:00.
THE FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS
Henrikki Timgren
Finland
Publisher
WSOY
www.wsoy.fi
I have been working in publishing since 2005 and have during that time worked at two Finnish publishing houses. From 2005 to 2011 at Gummerus, first as publishing manager for translated fiction and then as publishing director. From 2012 to present I have worked at Finland’s biggest trade publisher WSOY, first as publisher for translated fiction and since 2015 publisher for non-fiction, both Finnish and translated.
E-mail: [email protected]
Nuka Gambashidze
Georgia
Publisher and Rights Manager
Sulakauri Publishing
www.rights.sulakauri.ge
www.sulakauri.ge
Nuka Gambashidze is a publisher and rights manager from Tbilisi. She works at Sulakauri Publishing, representing Georgian authors and selling rights. Nuka is passionate about sharing stories and the connecting power of literature. She believes that literary translation is a crucial part of intercultural connectivity that enriches Humanities; and that the storyworlds become whole via intermedia exchange in other languages and forms.
Nuka has a master’s degree in comparative literature and is now working on her PhD. She managed the Tbilisi International Festival of Literature for several years and curated different international projects.
Sulakauri Publishing (founded in 1999) is a leading general publisher with a curated list of Georgian and translated fiction and nonfiction, and juvenile literature.
The publisher’s original titles are translated into more than 30 languages; a few of them were adapted into films and series. Sulakauri represents prominent, award-winning Georgian authors including Aka Morchiladze, Ekaterine Togonidze, Tamta Melashvili, and Archil Kikodze. The acquisitions list includes Roberto Bolaño, Cormac McCarthy, Sally Rooney, Oksana Zabuzhko, and others.
E-mail: [email protected]
Leelo Märjamaa
Estonia
Publisher and editor-in-chief
Draakon&Kuu
www.draakonkuu.com
Draakon & Kuu is an independent publishing house established in 2000 in Tallinn, Estonia, which focuses on publishing quality children’s books in translation for all ages: picture books, fiction, poetry, graphic novels, as well as literary fiction for adults.
E-mail: [email protected]
Grandin Florent
France
Publisher
éditions Père Fouettard
www.perefouettard.fr
“Books for all children, well-behaved or not. For the angry children, those who are cheeky, nice, strange, funny, crazy, rebellious, inventive, quiet, quirky, those who have hair on their feet and in their noses, those who shout at everything, those who laugh at everything, those who don’t laugh at all, the small children, those who did not grow up, those who refuse to grow old and those who cannot wait to do so, children of all colours, of all shapes and sizes, chubby children, sturdy children, children who are forgotten at the supermarket, Montessori children, those who do not like to be tickled, those who love to jump on their beds, who love to roll around in the mud, to shout in the bath, to make socks out of toilet paper, the children no one says “I love you” to, those who are afraid of black or grey, those who do not like clowns or kisses, the children who blow their noses on Dad’s beanie, who hide their pants in Mum’s handbag, the children who go up slides instead of going down them, children from every continent and beyond.
For the free children, who, as they rightly should, refuse to be catalogued or labelled. For today’s children, who will be tomorrow’s grown-ups.”
E-mail: [email protected]
Barbora Baronová
Czech Republic
Publisher, writer
wo-men publishing
www.by-wo-men.com
Barbora Baronová is literary documentarian, book curator, independent publisher, journalist, artist and lecturer on self-publishing, author/co-author of 10+ books, holder of several book awards, such as Magnesia Litera and The Most Beautiful Czech Book. Her work was also shortlisted within other book competitions, such as The Best Documentary Book of the Year at Ji.hlava IFF or Photo-Text Book competition at Photo Festival in Arles, France. She is a member of the Czech Writers Association and International Alliance of Independent Publishers. In 2012, she has started an independent wo-men publishing. Wo-men is oriented mainly toward gender-focused art documentary books and its main aim is to share high quality literary and photographic/art non-fiction projects created by Czech and international authors. Mostly, the books by wo-men include voices of marginalized people, and cover non-mainstream topics. The books published by wo-men are printed in lower numbers (sometimes as limited editions) on high-quality ecological paper in local printing companies.
E-mail: [email protected]
Carlo Gallucci
Italy
Publisher
Gallucci Editore
www.galluccieditore.com
Gallucci Editore was founded in Rome in 2002. Started as a family adventure, it is now one of the biggest independent publishers in Italy, especially for children. It publishes books by prestigious Italian and international authors, artists, musicians, in different formats and genres. The main imprints are: Lìbrido, which publishes “hybrid” books, i.e. cloth, bath, smell books, for toddlers. Gallucci, for board books, novelties and picture books. Bros. gathers middle grade and YA novels. Balloon is for comics and graphic novels for all ages, with an eye on underground, fresh productions. Glifi is dedicated to fiction and non-fiction for adult readers. Each book is carefully chosen and crafted to spread the love for reading, learning and original stories.
E-mail: [email protected]
Marta Górska
Poland
Rights Manager
Foksal Publishing Group
www.gwfoksal.pl
Foksal Publishing Group publishes 800 books a year on average and is one of the leading trade publishers in Poland. Foksal Publishing Group includes the following reputable publishing houses: one of the most influential and meritorious for Polish culture publishing houses W.A.B., popular and esteemed children’s books publisher Wilga, and Buchmann, lifestyle and guide publishing house known to the readers since 1987.
Over the last few years, some of the most popular and most influential Polish and foreign authors have trusted us with their books. These were: Han Kang, Sally Rooney, Alice Munro Michel Houellebecq and many more.
In order to meet reading trends and our readers’ expectations, in 2013 Foksal Publishing Group further developed its offer and introduced Uroboros publishing house, which is dedicated to fantasy and science fiction lovers.
Uroboros logo refers to a symbol depicting a dragon eating its own tail which originates in ancient Egypt and Greece. Uroboros authors include both Polish and foreign names. Some of the latter are: Arwen Elys Dayton, Sarah J. Maas or Maggie Stiefvater.
E-mail: [email protected]
Ola Wallin
Sweden
Publisher
ERSATZ
www.ersatz.se
Ersatz is a general-interest book publisher in Stockholm founded in 1994 by Anna Bengtsson and Ola Wallin. Our main focus is on literature and nonfiction in translation, primarily Easteuropean and German literature, but books from other languages and works originally written in Swedish take an increasingly large part of our output. For Ersatz it is important to maintain high quality standards in all parts of the production and we only use sheetfed printing presses and wood-free paper.
E-mail: [email protected]
The Book Arsenal Fellowship Program takes place within the 13th International Book Arsenal Festival and is supported by the International Renaissance Foundation.