Kuijer wins 2012 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Tuesday, 20 March 2012 Books+Publishing

Dutch author Guus Kuijer is the recipient of the 2012 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world’s richest prize for children’s and young adult literature.

Kuijer was announced as the recipient of the prize, worth five million Swedish krona (approximately A$707,700), overnight in Stockholm, to coincide with the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. The award will be presented to Kuijer at a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall on 28 May.

Kuijer was selected from a list of 184 candidates, which included Australian authors Hazel Edwards, Jackie French and Morris Gleitzman, and New Zealand authors Joy Cowley and Margaret Mahy. As previously reported by Bookseller+Publisher, Australian author and illustrator Shaun Tan won the prestigious award in 2011, becoming the second Australian to win the award, following Sonya Hartnett’s win in 2008.

Kuijer is the author of more than 30 children’s titles, some of which have been translated into 10 languages, including English, Swedish, German, Italian and Japanese. The only title of his published locally is The Book of Everything, which is available to order from Allen & Unwin. Currency Press has also published the screenplay based on the same book.

For more information about the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, click here.

Category: Local news