foreign rights
Please note – we only sell book rights.
At wo-men, we publish unique literary-artistic documentary books that amplify distinctive voices and themes within the society. Over the years, wo-men has cemented its name as the pioneer on the Czech art book scene – consistently publishing works that are niche, bold, timeless.
We have a strong focus on:
- Non-fiction & literary documentary
- Gender literature; topics of sexuality, intimacy, intersectional feminism, gender equity
- Social change; resilience of democracy, social justice, inclusion and equity, oral history, family politics
- Art books with strong messaging; experimental and photography books
Our books have received many Czech and international awards and shortlist placements such as Magnesia Litera, The Most Beautiful Book of The Year, Czech Grand Design, The Best Documentary Book of the Year, Vienna Photo Book Festival Award, or Les Prix du Livre shortlist.
We also attend international book fairs such as Frankfurter Buchmesse (Germany), Svět knihy (The Czech Republic), BRAK Festival Bratislava (Slovakia), The International Book Arsenal Festival in Kyiv (Ukraine), Tokyo Art Book Fair (Japan), Printed Matter's NY Art Book Fair (USA) and more.
Please note – the Czech Ministry of Culture offers a yearly grant for international translation of Czech books that could support your license purchase. Their deadline is November 15 for books published in the following year. For more information, consult this website, and don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions at rights@by-wo-men.com.
Foreign Rights Catalogue
BOOK 1:
Soft
Barbora Baronová, Hervé Jakubowicz et al.
November 2025
Awards:
longlist: Best Documentary Book of 2025 Ji.hlava International Film Festival, The Czech Republic, 2025
Why this book:
Raw and radically vulnerable, Soft is a rare exploration of sexual pleasure as lived, shared and felt by the Czech-French couple. By weaving together diary-like reflections, interviews, essays, and travel reportage, the book breaks the usual boundaries of non-fiction. It doesn’t merely describe desire; it invites the reader to explore every nuance of pleasure, examining how vulnerability shapes one’s understanding of eroticism and intimacy. From Ukraine to Japan, from Belgium to Thailand, Barbora and Hervé have travelled the world to discuss and reframe – together with artists, therapists, academics, artisans and people of subcultures – various taboo subjects linked to our sexuality: female squirting, asexuality, chastity, nudity, heteronormativity, cos-play, safe space, and more. In a Polish forest, a sticky Thai weather, Japanese love hotels, a Czech village, a Ukrainian art scene, a Swiss bathtub, two Czech-French lovers-documentarians-artists face unexpected delights, discoveries, disasters, nudity – and themselves.
Target audience:
Non-fiction readers curious about bold, unconventional, genre-defying books. Fans of Want by Gillian Anderson. Advocates, scholars & students of gender and sexuality studies. Art book collectors. Anyone open to seeing pleasure as political, as cultural exploration, and as a deeply human territory.
Media features:
Respekt
Deník N
Reflex
Salon Práva / novinky
Heroine
Number of standard pages: 240
Keywords: Sexuality, sexual pleasure, feature story, reportage, travelogue, essay, documentary, diary, literary non-fiction, literary documentary, world, art
English excerpt:
Download here
Rights available:
for all languages (except Ukrainian)
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BOOK 2:
I Rarely Hit Rock Bottom Anymore: Stories Behind Eating Disorders
(Toho dna se dotýkám už málo: Příběhy za poruchami příjmu potravy)
Martina Lupínková
Lenka Chánová (illustrator)
2022
Awards:
shortlist: Best Documentary Book of 2022 Ji.hlava International Film Festival, The Czech Republic, 2023
Why this book:
The book I Rarely Hit Rock Bottom Anymore: Stories Behind Eating Disorders brings life stories of people (women as well as men) with experience of eating disorders who have recovered. Martina Lupínková's own experience with an eating disorder was the motivation of the author to work on this project. The book is intended for people who are or have been through eating disorders themselves, as well as their loved ones. Stories with a happy ending can be an inspiration and give hope to all people having any type of experience with such a disorder. In parallel with the main theme of the book, however, the universal issues of trauma, unconditional love and acceptance, self-love and mental health are also addressed. The book can touch anyone who wants it.
Target audience:
Readers focusing on eating disorder issues, recovery and well-being, their families and friends. Researchers and the general public interested in books related to mental health. Institutions, schools, universities, libraries. Students. Psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists, medical staff.
About this book:
The book I Rarely Hit Rock Bottom Anymore: Stories Being Eating Disorders brings unique approach towards the subject of the eating disorders by showing positive strategies to cope with various types of trauma and aim for the recovery.
Media features:
Number of standard pages: 245
Keywords: Eating disorders, recovery, therapy, trauma, oral history, memory, documentary, female history, male history, literary non-fiction, literary documentary
English excerpt:
Coming soon
Rights available:
most of the languages (sold to Slovakia and Hungary)
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BOOK 3:
The Misses 2.0
(Slečny 2.0)
Barbora Baronová
Dita Pepe, Petr Hrubeš (Photography)
2025
Awards:
award for the first edition of the book in 2012: The Most Beautiful Czech Books of 2012
Why this book:
What does it mean to be single and childless in contemporary society? The Misses 2.0 revisits the lives and societal assumptions that have changed – or not – since the first award-winning edition of this book in 2012. Through oral histories, photographs, and personal archival material, this literary documentary unmasks stereotypes and the often invisible pressures that linger for women without traditional family markers. It engages with our shared history through lived experience and captivating photographs.
Target audience:
Readers interested in women’s history, feminist literature, oral history. Researchers or the general public interested in social change, gender politics, identity & memory. Cultural scholars and sociologists exploring familial and societal norms.
About this book:
The book Misses 2.0 is a new edition of a time-lapse documentary about unmarried and childless women in the Czech Republic, first published in 2012, now updated to 2025. What stereotypes do single and childless women still face in the 21st century? The book was adapted for broadcasting, too.
Media features:
Česká televize
Třista třicet tři
Number of standard pages: 389
Keywords: Oral history, memory, documentary, female history, literary non-fiction, literary documentary, history of 20th century
English excerpt:
Download excerpt from the book
Rights available:
all languages
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BOOK 4:
The Eagle from Diyarbakir
(Orel z Diyarbakiru)
Hervé Jakubowicz
Translation to Czech from French: Alžběta Stančáková, Sára Vybíralová
2023
Originally written in French
Why this book:
Because it offers a rare fusion of war reportage, autofiction, and visual narrative – illuminating how conflict shapes memory, identity, and art. A powerful, cross-genre work that resonates with today’s fractured global landscape.
Target audience:
Readers of literary fiction and autofiction; war and conflict journalists; academics in trauma studies, memory studies, and contemporary literature; fans of Winfried Georg Sebald, Charlotte Delbo, or Svetlana Alexievich
About this book:
The Eagle from Diyarbakir is a striking auto-fictional novel by French writer, photographer, and filmmaker Hervé Jakubowicz, tracing the inner journey of a war photographer haunted by the trauma of Rwanda and drawn once again into conflict—this time, into the bombing of Mosul. Blending documentary realism with layers of imaginative fiction, the novel spans Kurdistan, Sarajevo, New York, Paris, and beyond, capturing the emotional and geopolitical pulse of the years 1991–2017.
Based on Jakubowicz’s own powerful photographs and war reporting, this richly layered work follows in the spirit of Jakubowicz’s acclaimed film The Bullet Time, offering a unique literary vision that merges fact and fiction.
Media features:
Radio Prague International
Reportér
Number of standard pages: 288 + photos
Keywords: Autofiction, war and memory, documentary, hybrid genre, photographic narrative, post-conflict trauma
English excerpt:
Download English excerpt from the book
French excerpt:
Download French excerpt from the book
French is the original language of this book.
Rights available:
for all languages (not Czech anymore)
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BOOK 5:
Mařka
Adéla Marie Jirků
2022
Awards:
award for Outstanding Illustration: The Hollar Association of Czech Graphic Artists, The Czech Republic, 2023
shortlist: Best Documentary Book of 2022 Ji.hlava International Film Festival, The Czech Republic, 2023
shortlist (Book artwork by Adéla Marie Jirků): Czech Grand Design 2023, The Czech Republic
Why this book:
Because it offers a cross-generational portrait told through rare dialect and stunning visual storytelling. Mařka is a singular testimony to memory, creativity, and the quiet power of marginalized voices—told with poetic tenderness and artistic depth.
Target audience:
Readers of art books, literary non-fiction, and hybrid memoirs; curators and academics interested in outsider art, regional language, and visual culture; collectors of artist books.
About this book:
Poetic and visually striking, Mařka is an artistic and literary document written in the Wallachian dialect from the perspective of little Adéla Marie.
The story concentrates on the friendship of deaf-mute Mařka and a little girl, today a renowned painter and illustrator Adéla Marie Jirků. Mařka had been herding sheep in Wallachia all her life, but thanks to Adéla, she discovered wax crayons in her old age and began to draw art brut pictures. As an adult, Adéla felt the need to capture Mařka's pure world, because she realized that thanks to her deaf-mute aunt, her childhood was exceptional—as not everyone has their own Mařka.
The author's illustrations, created over sixteen years in the book, are accompanied by art brut pictures of Mařka herself.
Media features:
Deník N
Česká rozhlas Vizitka
Number of standard pages: 35 + paintings
Keywords: Artistic book, visual memoir, regional dialect, oral history, art brut, intergenerational storytelling
English excerpt:
coming soon
Rights available:
for all languages
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BOOK 6:
Being a Miss in Japan
(O japonských slečnách)
Barbora Baronová
Dita Pepe (photography)
2025
Awards:
shortlist: The Most Beautiful Czech Books of 2025
Why this book:
Art book dealing with a strong cultural phenomena related to unmarried and childless women of Japan.
Target audience:
Japan-lovers, contemporary art admirers, readers of literary non-fiction books, art books fans; curators and academics interested in art, photography and visual culture; collectors of artist book-objects
About this book:
Who is called "a non-woman" in Japan? What does an expression "expired Christmas cake" mean? Why do young Japanese women prefer to stay single? Does mutual drinking of the tea deepen a partnership? In 2014, literary documentarian Barbora Baronová and photographer Dita Pepe have been exploring the phenomena of Japanese unmarriedness and childlessness in prefectures of Siatama and Tokyo. Their art collaboration has resulted in the art book named Being a Miss in Japan. The book bringing a unique artistic interpretation of deep sociological subjects is published in three languages: Czech, Japanese and English.
Media features:
Number of standard pages: 42
Keywords: Japan, unmarried women, single women, childless women, artistic book, photography, visual memoir, storytelling, oral history, contemporary art
English and Japanese excerpt:
Download excerpt from the book
Rights available:
for all languages
