Mila’s Books wins 2025 Bologna Best Children’s Publisher, Oceania
Aotearoa New Zealand publisher Mila’s Books has won the 2025 Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publisher of the Year in the Oceania category, announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF) during the fair’s opening day.
Mila’s Books is the world’s only all-Pasifika publishing team, dedicated to creating stories that celebrate the languages, cultures, and identities of the Pacific. ‘Founded in 2019, Mila’s Books exists to ensure that Pasifika tamaiti (children), families, and communities feel seen, heard, and valued in the stories they read,’ with all books created by Pasifika authors, illustrators and creatives, said the prize announcement.
Six prizes are awarded annually across six geographical areas, with the aim to ‘highlight publishers at the forefront of innovation in their activity for the creative nature of the editorial choices they have made during the previous year’.
By region, the 2025 Bologna Prize winners are:
- Africa: Imagnary House (South Africa)
- Asia: Everafter Books – Beijing Everafter Culture Development Co. (China)
- Caribbean, Central and South America: Companhia das Letras (Brazil)
- Europe: Fatatrac (Italy)
- North America: Candlewick Press (US)
- Oceania: Mila’s Books (Aotearoa New Zealand).
Other nominated publishers in the Oceania region for 2025 included Affirm Press, Five Mile Press, Fremantle Press and Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing. Recent previous winners for Oceania include Huia Publishers (2024, Aotearoa New Zealand) and Magabala Books (2023, Australia).
More information about the prize, including a full list of shortlisted publishers from each of the six geographical areas, can be found on the BCBF website.
Category: Awards Local news
