The International Aficionado Award is excited to announce that the call for 2026 submissions is open!
Designed by and for passionate and committed publishing professionals, the Aficionado Award was created to honour outstanding projects and to network, support and promote the personalities behind them. The initiators are Tom Kraushaar (Klett-Cotta, Germany), Michael Gaeb (Literarische Agentur Eggers & Gaeb, Germany), Rebecca Servadio (London Literary Scouting, UK), Aleksi Siltala (Siltala Publishing, Finland) and Camilla Cottafavi (Feltrinelli, Italy). The award is organised in cooperation and with the financial support of Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino.
After the first three wonderful editions awarding Lola Shoneyin’s Aké Festival in 2023, Rita Mattar and the Círculo de Poemas at Fósforo Publishing in 2024 and Naveen Kishore and Sunandini Banerjee for Seagull Books in 2025, the call for this year’s submissions is now open! Publishing professionals may send them via mail@aficionadoaward.com until 31 January, 2026.
The 2026 preliminary jury consisting of Stella Johannesdottir, Reykjavik Literary Agency, Seid Serdadevic, Fraktura Publishing, Zagreb, Michael Gaeb, Gaeb & Eggers Agency, Berlin will then choose the three shortlisted candidates who will present their projects at the Turin Book Fair on Wednesday, 13th of May 2026 at 5.30 pm, so make sure you mark the wonderful Turin Book Fair in your agenda for next year!