Awards

The Institute for Children’s Literature established the “Aleksandar Vučo” Literary Award in 2021. The award is presented biennially for the best book for children and young adults written in the spirit of the poetics of Aleksandar Vučo, one of the founders of contemporary Serbian children’s literature. Authorial consent for the establishment of the award was obtained from Vučo’s heirs and family. The award consists of an artistic statuette, a diploma, and a monetary prize. The competition was publicly announced, and the expert jury—composed of Gordana Maletić (chair), Rajko Lukač, and Slavka Petković Grujičić—unanimously decided at its meeting held on March 6, 2023, to award the “Aleksandar Vučo” Award for 2021/2022 to the author Jovica Tišma for his collection of short stories Once Upon a Time There Was a Fear, published by the Belgrade-based publishing house Laguna. Accompanied by an appropriate cultural and artistic program and the jury’s statement of reasons, the award was ceremonially presented by Prof. Dr. Julijana Vučo at the Association of Writers of Serbia

A total of 38 books were submitted to the publicly announced competition for the 2023/2024 period. At a meeting held on March 10, 2025, the jury—composed of Gordana Maletić (Chair), Božidar Pešev (Member), and Slavka Petković Grujičić (Member)—decided to award the “Aleksandar Vučo” Award for 2023/2024 to Dušan Đurđev for the book Dekamoron (Prometej, Novi Sad, 2024). The award was ceremonially presented on International Children’s Book Day, April 2, at the Association of Writers of Serbia.