We are proud to announce that José Eduardo Agualusa has won the renowned Yasnaya Polyana Literary Prize in the Foreign Literature category for his novel The Creole Nation (“Nação Crioula”), published in Russia by Inostrannaya Literatura and translated by Varvara Makhortova.

The prize was established in 2003 by the Leo Tolstoy Estate Museum and Samsung Electronics. The jury of the award, which is headed by Leo Tolstoy’s great-grandson, includes well-known Russian writers, literary critics and public figures. Former prize recipients in the Foreign Literature category include Mo Yan, Orhan Pamuk, Mario Vargas Llosa, Amos Oz, Julian Barnes, Yu Hua, Patricia Duncker and Hernán Rivera Letelier.

The jury highlights how The Creole Nation is “a rare example of a novel free from artificiality and premeditated literary devices. Despite the complexity of the themes it addresses — the slave trade, the capriciousness of human fate and the power of history over the individual — the book is written with surprising vigour and an almost festive quality. Behind its epistolary form lies a rich, multifaceted and profoundly powerful narrative about the unpredictable paths a human life can take. […] Agualusa is, without a doubt, an extraordinary writer”.

The awarded author receives 1,200,000 RUB (~15,000 USD) and the translator 500,000 RUB (~6,000 USD).

> https://yppremia.ru/books/kreolskaya-naciya

> https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/cultura/3070591/agualusa-vence-premio-literario-russo-com-romance-nacao-crioula

We are excited to share that the AI-powered short film Membrane, based on Jorge Carrión‘s novel of the same title, has been awarded the Rai Cinema Award and the Prompt Magazine Prize at the AI.motion Film Fest 2026 in Milan, Italy. The short film was directed by Anna Giralt Gris and produced by Artefacto Films.

We are happy to announce that A House Full of People (“Una casa llena de gente”) by Mariana Sández has been selected to be pitched for screen adaptations at Iberseries & Platino Industria 2026.

Iberseries & Platino Industria is the leading international meeting point for professionals in the Ibero-American audiovisual sector. It brings together platforms, television networks, creatives, production companies, distributors, buyers, investors, and other key industry players, as well as organizations linked to tourism, education, and new technologies applied to the audiovisual field.
Its objective is to boost the visibility and global reach of content in Spanish and Portuguese, foster connections between talent and industry, promote international co-production, and drive the financing and commercialization of projects, generating new business opportunities.

A House Full of People is one of 16 titles chosen to be presented during this year’s sixth edition running from 29 September to 2 October in Madrid.

For further information, please see also the reporting in The Hollywood Reporter.

We are happy to share that Tatiana Salem Levy has been selected as one of three finalists for the Jan Michalski Prize for Literature 2026 for her novel “Vista Chinesa”.

Awarded annually by the Jan Michalski Foundation since 2010, the prize celebrates an outstanding work of world literature, regardless of genre or original language. Its distinctive international scope brings together works of fiction and non-fiction from around the world, with books nominated exclusively by the members of its international jury.

The winners of the Jan Michalski Prize receive a specially selected work of art, as well as CHF 50,000, enabling them to devote more time to their writing.

Previous winners of the prize include Guadalupe Nettel, Kate Beaton, Mia Couto, Zeruya Shalev and Olga Tokarczuk, among others.

> https://fondation-janmichalski.com/en/prix/edition-2026

After last year's positive feedback, Nicole Witt returned with a two day online workshop on Rights and Licences for the Frankfurt Global Network Programme.

The Frankfurt Global Network is a Frankfurter Buchmesse programme for the professional development and networking of publishers, rights managers and editors from around the world. It is a merger of the Frankfurt Fellowship Programme (launched in 1998) and the Frankfurt Invitation Programme (founded in the 1970s) and celebrated its premiere in 2025. This year's Programme includes 14 participants from all over the world and is open exclusively for publishers, editors, rights and licensing managers working on comics, manga and visual stories.

"Switching from delivering full-day seminars for the Invitation Programme in the days leading up to the Frankfurt Book Fair to the virtual format of the Frankfurt Global Network offers the advantage of being able to hold the workshop more in advance of the Fair and thus ensuring a better preparation", says Nicole Witt.

Some feedback from this year's participants:

"Thank you so much for the seminar on rights. It was really helpful. Being based in Southeast Asia often means it can already be quite a journey just to find the right rights holder or contact person, and then an even longer journey to get through the negotiation process. So hearing your perspective and experience was very useful for us."
Quynh Than, Co-Founder and Rights Manager & Editor at Du But Books, Vietnam

"Nicole Witt’s Rights & Licenses seminar is an essential tool for any publisher or agent involved in the buying and selling of rights. Nicole provides a meticulous overview of every stage of these processes, demonstrating—with both precision and a human touch—how to navigate the various aspects of drafting and signing contracts, maintaining a constructive approach during meetings, and effectively following up on agreements. As a professional, I highly recommend this seminar."
Diego Vázquez, Editorial Director at La Modernidad, Uruguay

"Thank you so much for the insightful and engaging Rights and Licenses seminar. It was truly enjoyable and very useful."
Ayşegül Utku Günaydın, Editor-in-Chief at Tudem, Delidolu/Desen, Turkey

"Thank you very much for the interesting presentation on ‘How to Frankfurt.’ I learned a lot."
Lucas Wetzel, Senior Editor at Andrews McMeel, USA

The National Library Foundation of Brazil (FBN) has announced the 2026 Support Program for the Translation and Publication of Brazilian Authors Abroad, in partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Program works as follows: Foreign publishers submit their publication project to the FBN, according to the Public Notice and the Regulation for the Translation Program. Subsequently, a committee performs the screening of the documents submitted. Another commission, in turn, selects the projects.

All information (in Portuguese, English and Spanish) can be found here. To download the complete Regulations, please click here.

The Program will provide support for translation, editing, and/or publication proposals in both the humanities and the sciences, in the following genres: Anthologies of poems and short stories, in whole or in part; Short stories, chronicles, poetry, and novels; Essays (literary, social, popular science, etc.); Comics; Oral tradition stories; Children’s and young adult literature; Picture books.

Unless otherwise specified in the Call Notice, the FBN will provide financial support ranging from US$ 1,000.00 to US$ 6,000.00. Reissued projects may receive a support of up to US$ 3,000.00. The selected publisher commits to publishing the work within 24 (twenty-four) months from the date of signing the Term of Commitment.

Applications have to be submitted until 13 September (11:59 p.m., Brasília time) via the new official platform. The final results will be published on 24 November.

“The Red Earth” by Morgana Kretzmann is recommended on CrimeReads‘ Best International Crime Fiction of July 2026 list. The English translation by Daniel Hahn has just been launched in the US by HarperVia.

“The Red Earth is an ecothriller with supernatural elements that packs a serious emotional punch. (…) A tour de force of righteous fury that demands to be reckoned with, and an insightful dissection of a community on the precipice of destruction.”

CrimeReads is dedicated to the world of crime, mystery and thrillers, and maintained by LitHub.

You can find the complete list of four titles here.