Cesare De Michelis International Award for Publishing

The Cesare De Michelis International Award for Publishing makes this year its debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

The Award - dedicated to Cesare De Michelis, publisher and soul of Marsilio for decades, has been created to annually reward publishers who have distinguished themselves on the international scene for the vitality and novelty of their publishing achievements.

The event is dedicated to the 2025 award-winning publisher:

• Luiz Schwarcz, of Companhia das Letras, São Paulo

Together with Luiz Schwarcz, speakers include:

• Juergen Boos, director of the Frankfurter Buchmesse
• Luca De Michelis, Ceo of Marsilio Editori
• Flavio Gregori, director of Incroci di civiltà, Ca’ Foscari
• Michael Krüger, writer and critic, for many years publisher of Carl Hanser Verlag

The award-winning publisher in 2025

Luiz Schwarcz was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1956.

During his third year of college, he began working as an intern at the Brasiliense publishing house. Soon he became the administrative manager and in 1980 he took on the role of editorial director. Through the 1980s Brasiliense, under the command of Caio Graco Prado and Luiz Schwarcz, established the literary tastes of a generation, and actively participated in the movements leading to the redemocratization of the country.

In his last year working at Brasiliense, Schwarcz created a division of open seminars, lectured by scholars and prominent Brazilian intellectuals, which rallied large audiences.

In 1986, Schwarcz left Brasiliense to found the Companhia das Letras publishing house along with his wife, the historian and anthropologist Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. The Companhia das Letras catalogue has quickly become one of the most substantial in the Brazilian editorial market. Luiz Schwarcz’s influence in the cultural life of Brazil has gained him important awards such as “Man of Ideas” (1987), a distinction conferred by the Jornal do Brasil to the Brazilian intellectual of greatest importance throughout the year; the “Making the Difference” award (2004), together with Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2010)  and others, in an initiative by O Globo to honor those who — according to the newspaper — “contributed to make Brazil and the world better”.

In 2017, Luiz received the London Book Fair Lifetime Achievement Award.

In addition to his work as a publisher, Schwarcz is also the author of five books.

Speakers

Juergen Boos became President and CEO of the Frankfurter Buchmesse GmbH in 2005 and is President of LITPROM (Society for the Promotion of African, Asian and Latin American Literature) and Managing Director of LitCam (Frankfurter Buchmesse Literacy Campaign). Among many recognitions, Juergen Boos received the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art and the cultural distinction of Chevalier des Arts et des Lettersat the French embassy in Berlin. He is also a member of the Akademie Deutscher Buchpreis.

After working in M&A and leveraged finance at Citibank, Luca De Michelis joined Lehman Brothers, where he was involved in the capital markets. He has served as C.E.O. and publisher of Venice-based publishing house Marsilio Editori since 2008. He is also C.E.O. of Marsilio Arte.

Full professor of English literature at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, where he was Pro-vicechancellor for the University cultural activities and Head of the Department of Language sciences and comparative cultural studies, 

Flavio Gregori is the director of the International literary festival Incroci di civiltà.

For a long period editor and publisher of Carl Hanser Verlag in München, Michael Krüger is a poet, a novelist and a critic. He was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award In London. His last book is Verabredungen mit Dichtern, Suhrkamp 2024.

The Jury

• Teresa Cremisi, French-Italian publisher, president of Adelphi Edizioni, Milan, president of the jury
• Naveen Kishore, founder and publisher of Seagull Books, Kolkata, awarded in 2022
• Michael Krüger, for many years publisher of Carl Hanser Verlag, München, awarded in 2023
• Fiona McCrae, for many years publisher of Graywolf Press, Minneapolis, awarded in 2024
• Francesca Varotto, editor in chief of foreign fiction, Marsilio Editori, Venezia