Januskevic is Back With Belarusian Goblet of Fire!
You may recall that the Belarusian publisher of Harry Potter books, Januskevic, was shut down after the publication of Prisoner of Azkaban due to the conflict between Russian and the Ukraine. It seems they have been able to make good on their promise at that time to continue publishing the translations despite that set back and Belarusian Goblet of Fire is now available to preorder at knihauka.com; to be released 2025-02-08.
It doesn’t sound like it was an totally easy transition; there are a lot of restrictions on the sale of the book. After J.K. and her team denied an extension of the publishing rights due to sanctions imposed on Belarus by the UK, Januskevic had to renegotiate the rights from scratch with some severe restrictions. Notably, the books cannot be sold in Belarus!
| Title: | Гары Потэр і Келіх агню |
| Transliteration: | Hary Poter i Kelik ahniu |
| Translator: | |
| ISBN: | 978-83-68202-25-0 |
| Published: | 2025-02-08 |
| Publisher: | |
| Links: |
Details about their trials are on Januskevic’s Instagram: @januskevic.books (specifically this post) and I have included an English translation below for those interested.
On February 8, 2025, the book Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the 4th book in J.K. Rowling’s famous series about the boy who lived, will see the light of day. Translated from English by Alena Pyatrovich @decuerpoentero, with artistic design by Brian Selznick (USA) and adapted by Khrystina Ivantsova. The book contains a whopping 712 pages. The first three books in the series will also be reprinted in hardcover.
Starting today, we are announcing PRE-ORDERS on the website knihauka.com, both for the fourth book individually and for the complete series.
We remind you that, this past summer, we were forced to announce that British rights holders refused to extend the rights for the Belarusian edition of the Harry Potter series, citing the severe sanctions imposed by the United Kingdom against Belarus as a co-aggressor country, as well as Rowling’s principled position on this matter.
After lengthy and fruitful negotiations, with the help of colleagues and friends, we managed to break through the wall of misunderstanding and demonstrate how important it is for Belarusians—amid persecution of national culture and a harsh struggle for good and light—to read the Harry Potter books in their native language.
We express our heartfelt gratitude to Iryna, Yury, and especially Lyoni Kozykau, who built bridges and convinced the British side to take a fresh look at the issue. We are sincerely grateful to Tatsiana Nyadbay and the entire team at Belarusian PEN for communication and decisive action, as well as to the English and International PEN Centers for promptly stepping into the matter and achieving successful outcomes.
Thank you to everyone who sincerely offered their help, even if we did not use it. The matter required silence and time—please forgive us if this seemed like disregard. That was not the case at all.
There is bad news as well. We signed a new contract under fairly strict terms. J.K. Rowling’s books will be sold exclusively on our platforms: at the “Knihauka” bookstore in Warsaw, the online store knihauka.com, and the Allegro and Amazon marketplaces. Even worse, their sale is PROHIBITED on the territory of Belarus and Russia. This means we cannot ship Harry Potter books by mail to Belarus. We hope that despite these obstacles, our readers at home will find ways to purchase and receive the new editions.
We are going all-in—almost all our financial resources will go toward printing new editions of the Harry Potter books. Other projects, including works by Ray Bradbury, Jorge Luis Borges, Rebecca Kuang, Ayn Rand, Frank Herbert, and others, are being postponed for better times. We are not receiving any funding (outside the “Shuflyadka” competition) from our grant-distributing structures.
If you have the financial means, please support us on Patreon and Zrzutka (links in the “Support” highlights). Or simply buy our books and join in reading! That is the best recognition of our work.
