EBRD Literature Prize 2026 opens for submissions

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is pleased to announce the launch of the EBRD Literature Prize 2026.

The Prize is awarded to a work of fiction originally published in a language of a country where the Bank invests, translated into English and published for the first time in the past year by a European (including British) or North American publisher.

Submissions of novels, or collections of short stories by a single author, are invited until 8 December 2025 and will be considered by an independent panel of judges. 

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Bank’s headquarters in London on 2 July 2026.

Prize money of €20,000 will be awarded for the winning book, divided equally between author and translator.

The Prize has already introduced a broad range of literature from Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The Ukrainian book The Orphanage, written by the widely acclaimed Ukrainian novelist and poet Serhiy Zhadan, won the 2022 EBRD Literature Prize. 

In 2023, the Ukrainian nominee Volodymyr Rafeyenko with his book Mondegreen hit the list of ten finalists.

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv, a book written in Russian by Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov, was shortlisted in 2024.

In 2025, two books by Ukrainian authors (Artem Chapeye, The Ukraine, and Yuliia Iliukha, My Women) and one book by a Moldovan author Liliana Corobca Too Great a Sky  were among the finalists.

Find out more

Press release