Prague Book Tower is dedicated to contemporary Russian literature in exile, free from state censorship. The need for such a fair emerged after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when many writers and publishers found it impossible to continue their work in Russia and chose to carry it on elsewhere. First held in September 2024, it was the first Russian-language book fair of its kind outside Russia.
We see our mission as making this literature visible and building bridges in both directions: bringing Russian-language authors to readers in the West, and introducing Russian-language readers to contemporary literature from across the free world.
The fair stands in solidarity with Ukraine and openly condemns the war. We stand for freedom of expression, human dignity and openness to the world.
We see our mission as making this literature visible and building bridges in both directions: bringing Russian-language authors to readers in the West, and introducing Russian-language readers to contemporary literature from across the free world.
The fair stands in solidarity with Ukraine and openly condemns the war. We stand for freedom of expression, human dignity and openness to the world.
Russian-language publishing projects worldwide took part in 2026
37
of 43
new titles published outside Russia in 2026, on the shelves
1,500
of ~1,650
books sold in three days
4,820
Growth since the first fair in 2024
×2.3
16 → 37
×2.5
1,200 → 3,000
×3
20 → 64
×4
33 → 135
participants
visitors
events
speaker
11,862 books sold over three fairs · ~10,000 visitors · 13 countries
11,862 books sold over three fairs
· ~10,000 visitors
· 13 countries
· ~10,000 visitors
· 13 countries
Prague Book Tower estimate, September 2026
What to expect in Prague
Once a month you will learn about our latest features and hottest news. And no spam of course.
By clicking the button, you consent to the processing of your personal data and agree to the Privacy Policy.
37 participants from 14 countries
Country refers to where each participant is based
GERMANY
-
Babel Books BerlinBookshop by Mauerpark with a tightly curated Russian-language selection -
FRESH VerlagIndependent publisher founded in 2022; fiction, poetry, children’s books -
ISIA Media VerlagLeipzig house publishing in five languages -
ImWerden VerlagMunich, since 2011; writers of the Russian diaspora and archival recovery -
InacheMultilingual literary lifestyle magazine -
Stein PublishingNon-profit; European history and politics translated into Russian -
ONE BOOK PublishingFounded in 2024 to publish Navalny’s Patriot in Russian -
Echo BooksOnline bookshop and publisher of books banned in Russia -
Zukunft MemorialHistorical memory of Soviet repression and human rights today
CZECH REPUBLIC
-
Biblio.tečkaPrague library in Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian -
Novoe Mesto BooksPrague bookshop for non-fiction and contemporary writing -
Russkaya TraditsiyaSince 2002; the Russian emigration in Czechoslovakia -
Slavonic Library900,000 volumes, part of the Czech National Library -
Booksy.placeOnline platform for Russian-language books
FRANCE
-
Éditions TourgueneffParis, since 2022; poetry, prose, autofiction, translation -
Turgenev LibraryFounded in Paris by Ivan Turgenev in 1875 -
YMCA-PRESSFounded 1921; first publisher of The Gulag Archipelago
UNITED STATES
-
BAbookPublishing house and book club with 15 imprints and 300 authors -
Tamizdat ProjectResearch and archive on censorship and banned books -
Virgola PressNew York; poetry, prose and European classics in translation
LATVIA
-
MeduzaPublishing arm issuing books banned in Russia -
ÜberbauRiga, since 2024; books on the global future -
Virgola PressOpen-access scholarship and the journal Palladium
ISRAEL
-
Babel (Tel Aviv)Bookshop’s own imprint, publishing since 2019 -
Kniga SeferRussian-language publisher, also translating from Hebrew
SERBIA
-
normaSmall press and journal for short prose -
shell(f)Belgrade small press; autofiction and cross-genre writing
SWITZERLAND
-
Sandermoen PublishingBilingual children’s books and writing on emigration -
SamTamBooksChildren’s and YA books; community, bookshop and imprint
NETHERLANDS
-
Fifth WaveLiterary magazine of the new Russian emigration
POLAND
-
Deep SkyWarsaw, since 2025; emigration and repression, alongside predictive astrology
SWEDEN
-
Hyperboreus / InterbokStockholm; bilingual poetry and tamizdat distribution
PORTUGAL
-
Liberty Books LisbonBookshop and cultural venue with a new publishing line
SLOVAKIA
-
Vidim BooksPublisher and distribution platform across Europe and beyond
UKRAINE
-
Oktan PrintUkrainian publisher and printing house, also working from Prague
What sold in 2026
Politics and the war
Ivan Filippov, Putin’s Russia against Putin: The War According to Z
Freedom Letters
Ekaterina Schulmann, The Return of the State: Political History of the 2000s
Echo Books
Alexandra Prokopenko, From Sovereigns to Servants
Echo Books
Mikhail Zygar, The Empire Must Die
Meduza
Analytical non-fiction on Russia is the strongest category at every stand, and most of it can no longer be published at home.
Memory and the archive
My Father’s Letters: Correspondence from the Soviet
Zukunft Memorial
Material: Women’s Memory of the GULAG
Zukunft Memorial
Documentary books on Soviet repression sell steadily year after year, and their readers are the same people buying the books above.
Women writing
Zalina Marshenkulova, Everything Was Fine Until the Feminists Came Along
Vidim Books
Daria Serenko, Girls and Institutions
ONE BOOK Publishing
Egana Djabbarova, My Dreadful Body
shell(f)
Feminist writing and autofiction, suppressed as a category in Russia, have become one of the fastest-growing segments abroad.
Foreign authors in Russian translation
Ian McEwan, What We Can Know
FRESH Verlag
Timothy Garton Ash, Homelands
FRESH Verlag
Gonçalo M. Tavares, O Bairro
Liberty Books Lisbon
Gisèle Pelicot, A Hymn to Life
ONE BOOK Publishing
These houses do not only sell rights, they buy them. Translation into Russian now happens outside Russia, and the readership follows the publisher, not the territory.
Where we are growing
A bridge that works both ways
In 2026 the fair went to Frankfurt for the first time, with a stand of its own and three authors from Russian-language publishers in exile. In the other direction, European writers came to Prague: Alena Machoninová from the Czech Republic, Gonçalo M. Tavares from Portugal and Olaf Kühl from Germany, presenting books published in translation.
In 2026 the fair went to Frankfurt for the first time, with a stand of its own and three authors from Russian-language publishers in exile. In the other direction, European writers came to Prague: Alena Machoninová from the Czech Republic, Gonçalo M. Tavares from Portugal and Olaf Kühl from Germany, presenting books published in translation.
Book Tower Design Awards
A design prize launched in 2026, with four categories and a jury of five designers. No submissions: the jury walks the fair, opens the books and picks.
A design prize launched in 2026, with four categories and a jury of five designers. No submissions: the jury walks the fair, opens the books and picks.
What comes next
Translation was the theme of the 2026 fair, and it is where the next few years are heading. The fourth fair opens in Prague on 10 September 2027.
Translation was the theme of the 2026 fair, and it is where the next few years are heading. The fourth fair opens in Prague on 10 September 2027.
- The book remains a weapon of political struggle. And for that a book does not have to be political: it develops the mind, the imagination, thought. I think books help us see. And if more people can see, the world will become more reasonable too.Gonçalo M. Tavareswriter, Portugal
Book Tower Design Awards
New in 2026. A design prize with four categories and a jury of five designers: Filip Blažek, Peter Bankov, Vsevolod Vlasenko, Eduardo Barrera Arambarri and Victor Melamed.
No submissions. We walk the fair, look at the books, leaf through them, touch them, argue and pick the best. A bit like Michelin, only in the world of books. — Peter Bankov, jury member
No submissions. We walk the fair, look at the books, leaf through them, touch them, argue and pick the best. A bit like Michelin, only in the world of books. — Peter Bankov, jury member
Best design 2026
Nothing Like It by Anna Narinskaya — Babel Publishing, Tel Aviv
Illustrations by Ivan Lungin, design by Igor Gurovich and Dmitry Krivoruchko
Illustrations by Ivan Lungin, design by Igor Gurovich and Dmitry Krivoruchko
Best cover
Roman Kim, Three Houses Opposite the Neighboring Two — Ad Marginem, hide books series, design by Stepan Lipatov
Northern Route: Stories of Ukrainian Refugees Collected by Volunteers, 2022–2024 — Vidim Books, design by BookLab s.r.o.
Dinara Rasuleva, Lostlingual — Rab-Rab Press, designed by Bardhi Haliti
Daria Apakhonchich, 12 or 13 Stories — Éditions Tourgueneff, designed by the author
Best book layout
Material: Women’s Memory of the GULAG — Zukunft Memorial, design by ABCdesign (Dmitry Mordvintsev, Ekaterina Yumasheva)
Eugene Ostashevsky, Alphabet Soup: The Translingual Sayings of Emma and Eva as Recorded by Their Father — Tamizdat Project, design by ELAS
Jonathan Littell and Antoine d’Agata, An Uncomfortable Place, published by Meduza, design by Mārtiņš Jansons.
Best illustration
Armen Zakharyan, Conversations on In Search of Lost Time — Éditions Tourgueneff, illustrated by Polina de Mauny
Daria Serenko, Girls and Institutions — ONE BOOK Publishing, illustrated by Anastasia Shilova (Hvoii)
Hélène Mallet, Mona Olala — Boomkniga, illustrated by Varvara Pomidor
These houses do not only sell rights, they buy them. Translation into Russian now happens outside Russia, and the readership follows the publisher, not the territory.
What people say
- This year’s fair was busier and more intense than 2025. There are more presentations, more conversations, and entirely new elements, such as the Book Tower Design Awards. One of the publishers joked that we now live from one Tower to the next. That, it seems, is exactly right.Mikhail Kaluzhskyjournalist and curator
- You managed to bring together people so different and so interesting. There were many unexpected encounters, including with people we had lost sight of long ago, back in Moscow. Your fair is an unusual weave of the personal, the intellectual and even the political.Alena Machoninovátranslator and writer, Czech Republic
- This is gradually becoming an event beyond the Russian-speaking community in Prague. Czechs are coming too, people interested in the subject, people who work with the Russian language despite the ongoing war. The Tower is turning into an event in Czech cultural life, even if it happens in Russian.Ivan Preobrazhenskypolitical analyst
As covered by LGMW Magazine, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Prague International
Contact
Alexandra Vakhrusheva
Founder and Director
Prague Book Tower, z.s. · Černomořská 235/5, 101 00 Praha 10, Czech Republic
Be the first to know
Monthly news from Russian-language publishing in exile.
By clicking the button, you consent to the processing of your personal data and agree to the Privacy Policy.