Last week, the winners of the inaugural PublisHer Excellence Awards were announced at the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

PublisHer is a global platform dedicated to helping advance women working across the publishing industry. They strive to create a space for women to build community, learn, and support one another. The inaugural PublisHer Excellence Awards is part of the initiative to celebrate women who have positively impacted the international publishing industry. 

During the ceremony, the founder of PublisHer, Bodour Al Qasimi, paid tribute to the winners and the runners-up, thanking the professional jury for their contributions in making this possible, and in doing so, kicking the ceremony off. 

There were a total of 113 applicants comprising some of the leading female figures prevailing throughout the international publishing industry. This included Emma House, director at Oreham Group; Arpita Das, founder and publisher at Yoda Press; Latoya West-Blackwood, publishing and communications consultant; Caroline Fortin, president at Quebec Amerique International; and Trasvin Jittidecharak, founder and publisher at Silkworm Books.

The jury deliberated carefully for six months, before shortlisting the nine finalists from whom the winners were finally announced. 

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Anne Friebel, publishing director at Palomaa Publishing, received the PublisHer Excellence Award in the Innovation category. Some of her work that received attention was The Female Publisher network, built to help connect women within the German-speaking publishing market. In addition, her role as a co-host of the "Die Bücher unserer Zukunft" podcast (Books of Our Future) has shown her continuous commitment to doing everything in her power to amplify female voices. 

Mitia Osman, CEO and publisher of Mayurpankhi and the executive director at Agamee Prakashani, won the Emerging Leader Award, having displayed commendable leadership at her publishing house, Mayurpankhi, in Bangladesh. She was the first woman to have established a children's publishing house in the country, and she also went on to create campaigns for greater gender diversity in publishing on an international level. 

Lastly, Shirley Yvonne Carby, the chairperson at Carlong Publishers Caribbean Ltd, was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her dynamic 45-year publishing career. Her work as a leader in publishing in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean was recognised alongside her efforts in supporting the training of authors and other professionals in the industry. 

The PublisHer Excellence Awards sheds light on women spending the better part of their lives in helping improve the publishing industry. This recognition of their achievements empowers women to continue developing as professionals, as well as raises awareness, bringing attention to the challenges that many women still face in this industry. 

Syeda Erum Noor is devoted to learning about the craft of writing and is an avid reader who can talk endlessly about the magic of books. Reach her on Instagram at @syedaerumnoorwrites.