Videos from the announcement on YouTube

 

Larry Lempert comments the release of candidates for 2014

Release of list of Nominated Candidates for 2014 on October 10

Photo: Frankfurt Book Fair (2012)

The list of nominated candidates for the 2014 Award will be announced on October 10. Jury Chairman Larry Lempert presents the list at the international Book Fair in Frankfurt. The program begins at 4:00 pm with a welcome speech by Gabi Rauch-Kneer, Vice President of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Then the works of this year’s laureate Isol is presented. ALMA Director Helen Sigeland will talk about the upcoming events of ALMA Before Larry Lempert makes the announcement at 4:40.A digital list in alphabetical order and interview with Larry Lempert will be available on our web after the announcement!

Tonight Isol receives the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Tonight the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature will be presented to Isol! The 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be presented by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria and the Swedish Minister for Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth.

Today, the award office has published interviews with both Isol and jury chairman Larry Lempert.
– Isol got the prize for her quality, for her humanism and for her respect for the child, says Larry Lempert. In a broader sense, I would say that she is a surprising illustrator, an illustrator who surprises in every book she has done. She goes from one step to another, always with a new touch, a new approach.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award rewards illustrators, storytellers, authors and reading promoters who work in the humanistic spirit of Astrid Lindgren.
– Isol has always focused on the child, she always shows respect to the child, says Larry Lempert. She always defends the child. And I think these are the most important things that we can see in a children’s book. She always talks with the child rather than to the child.

Isol herself, being a not only an illustrator, but also a cartoonist, painter, graphic artist, poet, singer and composer, prefers to describe herself as a girl who is playing with her thoughts and skills:
– I like to test different fields and I like new adventures, but the core is always the same. I feel like a girl who is playing with her thoughts and her skills, and is trying to develop new games and to show something interesting for other people.

The award ceremony starts at 6:00 pm CET.

Online news

Here are a few news clips published last week. Enjoy!

14 days to go!

Larry Lempert during the 2011 announcement at Astrid Lindgren’s Näs. Photo: Emma Jansson

Follow the countdown to this year’s announcement! Only 14 days to go, today! Here are the details:

This year’s recipient or recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced on Tuesday March 26 at 1:00 pm.

The announcement will take place at Astrid Lindgren’s Näs in Vimmerby, where the Jury Chairman Larry Lempert will announce the recipient or recipients after the jury’s final meeting. At the same time a press conference is held at the international children’s book fair in Bologna, in the presence of the Swedish Minister for Culture Mrs. Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth. A presentation of the recipient will be given by a member of the jury after the announcement.

For this year’s award, 207 candidates from 67 countries are nominated. The nominating bodies come from all around the world and consist of international, national and regional groups with extensive and in-depth knowledge of children’s and young adult literature within their language area.

The award, which amounts to 5 million Swedish kronor (approx. 560 000 EUR), is given to one or more authors, illustrators or reading promoters working in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren and whose work is characterized by the highest artistic quality.

The announcement will be broadcast live on http://www.alma.se/en. High quality videos for Television Broadcast will be available on http://www.thenewsmarket.com/alma.

The previous recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award are: Guus Kuijer (2012), Shaun Tan (2011), Kitty Crowther (2010), Tamer Institute (2009), Sonya Hartnett (2008), Banco del Libro (2007), Katherine Paterson (2006), Philip Pullman (2005), Ryôji Arai (2005), Lygia Bojunga (2004), Christine Nöstlinger (2003) and Maurice Sendak (2003).

Kerstin Brunnberg, chairman of the Swedish Arts Council being interviewed by Swedish National Radio during the 2011 announcement. Photo: Emma Jansson

Save the date for March 26th

Now it´s time to note the date for this year’s announcement: March 26 at 1:00 pm! Then one (or several) of the 207 nominated candidates will be revealed as the 2013 recipient. The announcement will be broadcast live on our web and streamed to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which is the world’s most important international event dedicated to children’s literature.

The announcement will take place in Vimmerby, a small town on the countryside in the southern parts of Sweden. Announcing the recipient at Näs is symbolic, of course. Astrid Lindgren was born here more than 100 years ago. Her childhood at Näs has been described as very happy, she often played games with her three siblings in the playground on the Näs property. The cultural centre Astrid Lindgren’s Näs is situated next to Astrid’s childhood home, and here the chairman of the jury, Larry Lempert, will reveal the recipient or recipients name after the final jury meeting in the morning of the 26th.

At the same time, a press conference takes place at the Illlustrator’s café at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, where the announcement from Vimmerby is broadcast on a screen. The audience consist of international trade representatives, literature experts, reading promoters, authors, illustrators, journalists etc etc. The tension is usually excruciating minutes before the announcement. Could it be that the recipient or a publisher is actually sitting in the audience?

Astrid Lindgren at the stairs of her childhood home at Näs.

Kitty Crowther (2010 recipient) at Näs, during the 2010 award week. Photo: Stefan Tell.

Näs again, this time with Guus Kuijer (2012 recipient), Maria Tunek (left), librarian at Näs, and Corrie Kuijer. Visiting Näs was part of the 2012 award week programme. Photo: Stefan Tell.

Larry Lempert at the announcement at Näs 2011. Photo: Emma Jansson

The announcement at Illustrator’s café 2012. Photo: Stefan Tell

Guus Kuijer’s publisher Bärbel Dorweiler was sitting in the audience! She was congratulated by ALMA director Helen Sigeland. Photo: Stefan Tell.

Nominees and cake in Frankfurt

ALMA, together with the Frankfurt Book Fair, was the host on Thursday of a programme where the list of nominated candidates for the 2013 award was made public. The programme started at 4 pm with a welcome address by Gabi Rauch-Kneer, Vice President of the Frankfurt Book Fair, followed by a discussion of the nomination process and of the work of 2012 recipient Guus Kuijer. Moderator Felicitas von Lovenberg, of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, led a discussion between Larry Lempert, Chairman of the jury, and ALMA Director Helen Sigeland. The conversation focused on what criteria makes a candidate stand out and how the jury comes to a decision about which candidate or candidates should receive the award each year.

Helen Sigeland talking about the exhibition in Bologna marking the 10 year anniversary of ALMA.

Helen Sigeland talked of ALMA celebrating its 10 year anniversary, and the announcement of Guus Kuijer as the 2012 award recipient in March of this year. She also showed a slide of Guus Kuijer visiting Sweden at the end of May to participate in the award week. Larry Lempert then announced that there are 207 candidates from 67 countries nominated for the 2013 award, which is more than ever before. The number of nominating bodies participating in the nomination process has also increased since last year.

The programme concluded with Karin Nyman, daughter of Astrid Lindgren, being invited to the stage to participate in a conversation with Larry Lempert on the democratic values of Astrid Lindgren, focusing on the newly published Never violence! (Salikon), Astrid Lindgren’s speech when receiving the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels in 1978.

Helen Sigeland, Larry Lempert, Karin Nyman and Felicitas von Lovenberg in conversation.

After the programme a reception followed  celebrating the 10 year anniversary of ALMA, the 10 year anniversary of the Illustratoren Organisation (IO) and the 30 anniversary of Eselsohr.  Marking this event each organisation was presented with a beautiful birthday cake, picture of the ALMA cake below.

(… and if anyone´s wondering – yes, the cake tasted quite good, there were lots and lots of berries inside.)

There simply must be a cake if you´re celebrating a 10 year anniversary. Photo: Lisa Lundgren.

The nominated candidates for 2013 announced on October 11th

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award announces the nominated candidates for 2013 on October 11^th, at Frankfurt Book Fair. The nominated candidates are presented by jury chairman Larry Lempert at 4:40 pm, which will be followed by a public conversation between Larry Lempert and Karin Nyman (translator and daughter of Astrid Lindgren) on Astrid Lindgren – a safe guard for democratic values. The program also includes welcome speech by Gabi Rauch-Kneer, Vice President of the Frankfurt Book Fair, and a presentation of this year’s recipient, the Dutch author Guus Kuijer.

The announcement of the nominated candidates takes place at the children’s book corner K371 in Hall 3. The event is the result of a co-operation between the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award and the Frankfurt Book Fair.

We exhibit throughout the whole bookfair, October 10-14, you are so welcome to visit us in our stand, nr K365 in Hall 3.

“Books build bridges”

Those words came from jury chairman Larry Lempert, during his public conversation with journalist Gunilla Kindstrand today. The context was the 10^th anniversary of the Astrid Lindgren memorial award, and during 20 minutes the work of the ALMA and the previous recipients were discussed.
– How hard is it to really reach out to all around the world?
– Well, we are in contact with some 400 institutions and organisations internationally. They are the experts on the authors, storytellers, illustrators and reading promoters in their territory, or language area.
And of course, working with the ALMA came up.
– Do you argue sometimes in the jury?
– Always. In a positive way. It´s always good to have different opinions, and by debating different views we find the right way. And in the end, when the recipient or recipients are chosen, there is always a consensus in the jury.

Minister for Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, presented the Illis quorum medal to Gunilla Bergström, who receives the medal for her pioneering work as children’s book author and illustrator with an unfailing child’s perspective.
– I am extremely surprised, delighted and grateful, Gunilla Bergström said after the presentation.

Birgitta Wallin, editor at publishing house Karavan and Gunilla Brinck, library consultant, talked to Anna Selvåg from Swedish Arts Council about their experiences of working with reading promotion for children in South Africa and Botswana. Both Birgitta and Gunilla gave very interesting examples of the aim to develop good methods for reading promotion. In the case of South Africa, Gunilla talked about the work of identifying reading promoting organisations, and the difficulties going from a storytelling tradition in society, towards a tradition of reading.