Belarusian publisher Dmitri Strotsev accepts his IPA Prix Voltaire at the 2025 World Expression Forum, with International Publishers Association president Gvantsa Jobava and WEXFO founding CEO and IPA Freedom to Publish chair, Kristen Einarsson, June 2, 2025 (Photo by Porter Anderson).
By Andrew Richard Albanese, Editor-in-Chief
The International Publishers Association this week launched its call for nominations for the 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire, which recognizes “exemplary courage in upholding the Freedom to Publish and enabling others to exercise their freedom of expression.”This year marks the 20th anniversary of the prize, which was created in 2006 as the IPA Freedom to Publish Prize, and renamed the IPA Prix Voltaire in 2016.
“Over twenty years we have celebrated some of the bravest publishers in the world who serve as an inspiration to us all,” said Jessica Sänger, who recently took over as Chair of the IPA’s Freedom to Publish Committee, in a statement. “They have taken great personal risks to bring the voices of authors to their readers. We need that bravery, and that inspiration, now more than ever as the freedom to publish is increasingly challenged around the world.”
In 2025 the Prix Voltaire was awarded jointly to two exiled Belarusian publishers, Nadia Kandrusevich (Koska, exiled in Poland) and Dmitri Strotsev (Hochroth Minsk, exiled in Germany).
Previous prize recipients include Samir Mansour (Palestine, 2024), Mazin Lateef Ali (Iraq, 2023), SameSky Publishing (Thailand, 2022), Lebanese publishing house Dar Al Jadeed (2021), Vietnamese publishing house Liberal Publishing House (2020), Egyptian publisher Khaled Lotfy (2019), Swedish Hong Kong publisher Gui Minhai (2018),Turkish publisher Turhan Günay and publishing house Evrensel (2017), Saudi blogger Raif Badawi (2016) and Belarusian publisher Ihar Lohvinau (2014).
In a release, IPA reps said any individual, group, or organization can nominate a publisher that has recently published “controversial works amid pressure, threats, intimidation or harassment,” or that has “a distinguished record over many years of upholding the freedom to publish and freedom of expression.”
Nominations can be submitted via the IPA’s online form or by downloading and completing the nomination form and emailing it to the IPA at prixvoltaire@internationalpublishers.org. The closing date for nominations is February 22.
The 2026 IPA Prix Voltaire ceremony will take place at the 35th International Publishers Congress on 6 July 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.