Ukrainian Illustrator Misha Chernov Wins the 2026 Folio Book Illustration Award for Kazuo Ishiguro Novel

Ukrainian artist Misha Chernov has won the international Folio Book Illustration Award 2026 with an illustration for the first chapter of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go.

According to Ukrinform, the information was reported by Chytomo, citing the British publishing house The Folio Society, which organizes the competition.

In 2026, more than 400 entries from around the world were submitted for the Folio Book Illustration Award. Participants were required to create an original illustration for the first chapter of the novel.

“We are delighted to announce this year’s winner, Misha Chernov. His illustration was selected from hundreds of entries. It caught the jury’s attention with its bold visual storytelling and creative interpretation of the competition brief,” the publisher said.

In addition to the winner, the organizers named five runners-up: Maria Calderon; Federico, who works under the pseudonym Scrapy Art; Nikki Smetters; Tomislav Torjanac; and Dillon Samuelson.

The entries were judged anonymously, without the artists’ names or other identifying information. The jury considered technical execution, imagination, and the illustration’s emotional connection to the literary text.

Chernov had been following the work of The Folio Society for about six years. He decided to enter the competition toward the end of his university studies. The artist had previously submitted work to three other competitions but never made the longlists, so he did not expect to win the Folio Book Illustration Award.

Never Let Me Go is a dystopian novel by British writer of Japanese descent and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Kazuo Ishiguro. The story centers on Kathy, Ruth and Tommy, who grow up at the Hailsham boarding school. They later discover that they are clones created for organ donation.

For his competition entry, Chernov chose a hospital scene in which Kathy tells a patient about her fondest memories from her time at Hailsham.

In a post about his work making the shortlist, the artist explained his concept:

“The illustration captures a quiet moment of deep connection: Kathy sits beside a patient, telling him about her fondest memories of her school years at Hailsham. I wanted to envelop the viewer in a sense of warmth — the golden, sunlit embrace of nostalgia that fills the patient with hope, even though these memories do not actually belong to him. In the background, the steady glow of the heart monitor reminds us that it is Kathy’s stories that breathe life into the patient and restore his strength. Scattered around them are barely noticeable children’s drawings. Each one contains hidden details that directly reference the book’s key symbols and scenes.”

“The hospital scene has always evoked mixed feelings in me. On the one hand, it is filled with warm memories of the past, conveying a sense of childhood innocence and tranquility, as if things will always remain this way. But on the other hand, there is a strong sense of loss, because you realize that you will never be able to create new memories with these people or in this place — they simply no longer exist,” the artist noted.

Chernov first read Never Let Me Go in mid-2022. At the time, he was studying abroad and had been away from Ukraine for an extended period. “I was overwhelmed by a strong sense of despair and isolation, and the hospital scene deeply resonated with me because I knew I would never be able to visit some of the places or speak to some of the people I knew again,” Chernov said. According to him, working on the scene also gave him an opportunity to return to memories of people and places that have remained in his memory.

The children’s drawings surrounding the characters contain references to later events in Never Let Me Go. Chernov deliberately made some of them blurry so that their meaning would become clear gradually as the reader progresses through the novel. Among them are references to a scene involving Tommy during a football match. Other details relate to the scene in the art studio and the moment when Kathy listens to music.

Before completing the work, Chernov redrew the illustration twice. According to him, his initial concept did not work during the sketching stage. Overall, work on the final version took about 30 hours.

The Folio Book Illustration Award is an annual international competition organized by the British publishing house The Folio Society. Participants create illustrations for a work of fiction selected by the organizers. The competition is open to artists from around the world aged 18 and over who have not previously completed commissions for The Folio Society. The winner of the Folio Book Illustration Award receives £2,000, The Folio Society vouchers, and the opportunity to have their work published in one of the publisher’s future editions.

Chernov is a Ukrainian freelance illustrator. He holds a bachelor’s degree in illustration from Falmouth University in the UK. He creates illustrations for fiction and nonfiction books, media publications and maps, and also works in calligraphy and typography.

Kazuo Ishiguro is the author of the novels The Remains of the Day, Never Let Me Go and The Buried Giant, which have been published in Ukraine by the Old Lion Publishing House. He was born in Nagasaki and moved to the UK with his family at the age of five, where he has lived ever since. He was nominated for the Booker Prize four times and received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017.

As Ukrinform reported, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine is beginning to compile a catalog of ready-made cultural projects and ideas that could be presented at major international political and economic events in Ukraine and abroad in 2026–2027.

EMPR