An illustration from the Ukrainian Book Institute referencing the market’s catalogues for 2024 and earlier. Image: UBI
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Deadline for Applications: February 10
The Ukrainian Book Institute has begun the year with a translation support program called Translate Ukraine 2025.
As a government entity, the institute has funding to back its offer of translation support, and has issued a concise set of considerations to be aware of in considering acquiring translation rights of Ukrainian literature this year.
For those among our readers who know the leading, resilient Ukrainian house Vivat Publishing, you’ll find that the company is making an especially energetic effort (“Join Translate Ukraine 2025 With Vivat!”) to attract rights specialists and international publishers who would like to look into taking advantage of the program this year.
In quick bullets, the institute’s program is designed—as we see done in many world markets—to provide compensation for publishers’ expenses if they want to produce a translation of Ukrainian literature.
The funds provided are meant to:
- “Purchase rights for the translation of Ukrainian literary work into foreign languages and/or receive remuneration for the use of such rights
- “Produce the object of the intellectual property right—translation of the Ukrainian literary work into foreign language
- “Publish Ukrainian literary work in a foreign language — editing, layout, electronic version
A maximum of €8,000 (US$8,215) is to be compensated by the institute for a publisher’s expenses in each given case.
This page has complete details for making a translation rights application by the February 10 deadline.
The most basic criteria at play point out that a work being considered must be:
- Written in Ukrainian
- Published by a Ukrainian publisher(s) as of the date of application
- Be fully completed and published by the end of 2025
- Be published with a print run of at least 300 copies
Priority consideration is expected to be given to applications for “classical and contemporary Ukrainian literature, in particular literature addressing Russia’s war against Ukraine, decolonization, the history of Ukraine in different periods, Ukrainian culture, traditions, and daily life.”
An initial evaluation of applications will establish their compliance with requirements, and an “expert council” then will use more than one criterion to assess the relative value of each application. This is to include the literary quality of the project, the competence of the applying publisher, and the competence of the proposed translator.
Again, see this information for more details.
An image from Vivat Publishing’s colorful appeal for translation publishing interest in the company’s lists. Image: Vivat Publishing
More from Publishing Perspectives on rights and licensing in international markets is here, our long-running Rights Roundup series is here, more on translation funding is here, and more of our coverage of the Ukrainian market is here.
About the Author
