IBBY-UNESCO Collection - Call for Submissions!

By Ōtepoti He Puna Auaha | Dunedin UNESCO City Of Literature | Posted: Monday Jul 21, 2025

A celebration of children’s books in Indigenous and endangered languages. Deadline 15 December 2025

With nearly 40% of the world’s 7,000 languages at risk of disappearing, IBBY and UNESCO invite IBBY Sections, publishers, libraries, foundations, and cultural institutions from around the world to submit titles for the IBBY–UNESCO Collection of Remarkable Books for Young Readers in Indigenous and Endangered Languages. Join us to celebrate the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

• Books for children and young people (picture books, novels, biographies, graphic novels and nonfiction) presenting high-quality standards in terms of text and/or illustration;

• books published between January 2018 and December 2025;

• books originally published in an Indigenous and/or an endangered language, and original bilingual books including at least one Indigenous and/or endangered language;

• books expressing the intention of, or relation to, one or more of the 10 outputs of the Global Action Plan of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages; and

• books and publications that adhere to UNESCO principles and respect political neutrality.

Launch: 40th IBBY World Congress, Ottawa, Canada – August 2026

Send submissions to: ibby-unesco.collection@ibby.org

Full submission guidelines + form available at: ibby.org/awards-activities/activities/ibby-unesco-collection-of-remarkable-books-in-indigenous-and-endangered-languages