This year marks the fifth anniversary of PW Star Watch, a partnership between Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse, to recognize those up-and-coming members of the US and Canadian publishing communities and help expand their network internationally.

“Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse are pleased to be celebrating five years of PW Star Watch and all of the publishing professionals who have been honored through the program,” says Jim Milliot, editorial director of Publishers Weekly. “We look forward to many more years of highlighting those people who are innovating and improving the industry, and inspiring their colleagues.” Frankfurter Buchmesse provides the top honoree with a trip to the Frankfurt Book Fair each fall.

“With the PW Star Watch program, now in its fifth year, Publishers Weekly and Frankfurter Buchmesse have been putting the spotlight on the younger generation of publishing professionals from North America, celebrating up-and-coming talents and enabling them to attend the world’s largest book fair in Frankfurt. We are looking forward to the 2019 class of honorees,” says Matthäus Cygan, director, business development trade international, at Frankfurter Buchmesse.

Past winners have included Helen Yentus, art director Riverhead Books; Andrew (Harwell) Eliopulos, executive editor, HarperTeen; Gabriella Page-Fort, editorial director at AmazonCrossing; and, last year’s winners, Francesca Cavallo and Elena Favilli, founders of Timbuktu Labs and creators of the bestselling series Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

“It’s an incredible honour to receive such a prestigious award, coming, as we have, from such an unusual path,” Favilli said in her acceptance address at last year’s award ceremony in New York. “During this journey, we had many moments of fear, despair, profound self-doubt. But we welcomed those moments as part of the conquest of something bigger.”

Nominations have just opened for this year’s event. Those interested may nominate themselves, their colleagues, or peers who are working hard to advance publishing in North America. If you have been nominated before, but have not been honored, you can be nominated again.

To make a nomination go to www.publishersweekly.com/starwatch19.