Aficionado Award

Exceptional publishing initiatives and collaborations

The first international award to promote individuals, organisations and initiatives that are making a lasting difference in the publishing industry.

The AFICIONADO AWARD is a unique cooperation between its founding members, the Aficionado Community of international publishing professionals, Frankfurter Buchmesse and the Salone Internazionale del Libro di Torino. It was launched to recognise outstanding projects and to network, support and promote the personalities behind them.

2024 Winner & Shortlist

The 2024 Aficionado Award was presented to Rita Mattar, co-founder of the poetry subscription platform Circulo de Poemas(opens in a new window), an imprint of Fósforo Editora. Rita Mattar accepted the award on behalf of the founding team at an award ceremony on the Frankfurter International Stage. The 2024 shortlistees were Alba Donati for her bookshop La libreria sopra la Penna(opens in a new window) in a tiny Tuscan village and its associated literature festival as well as Frederike Doppenberg for her magazine Fifth Wave(opens in a new window) which provides a forum for independent Russian authors.

2023 Winner & Shortlist

The very first winner of the Aficionado Award was the Aké Arts and Book Festival in 2023. The unique festival was founded by Lola Shoneyin in 2013. Over the last decade, Aké has excelled at establishing a sense of community between participating authors while creating important connections with the local audience in Abeokuta, Lagos State. One of the festival’s explicit aims is to promote literacy, especially among a younger audience. To date, Aké has brought together writers, artists, poets and filmmakers from 29 African countries.

The book magazine The Passenger and the international literary cooperation Meridian Czernowitz were shortlisted for the award in 2023.

Aficionado Award Gewinnerin 2023 Lola Shoneyin auf der International Stage

2023 Aficionado Award Ceremony with winner Lola Shoneyin

Exceptional publishing initiatives and collaborations

2024 Winner & Shortlist

Panel discussion and award ceremony at #fbm24

2023 Winner & Shortlist

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