Now it’s possible to nominate candidates for the 2016 award

Workhop at Kulturhuset with 2011 ALMA Laureate Shaun Tan during the Award week. Photo: Stefan Tell

Today the nominating process for the 2016 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award begins. Appointed nominating bodies from all over the world may propose authors/illustrators/storytellers whose work for children and young adult is of the highest artistic quality characterised by the human values that Astrid Lindgren treasured. They may also nominate persons, organisations, institutions working with reading promotion for children and young adult. The possibility to nominate candidates is open until May 15.

More information on the nominating process here

Video from the program in Frankfurt

 

Nominations for 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award announced today

ALMA Director Helen Sigeland, Silke Weitdendorf, Oetinger Verlag, Boel Westin, Jury Chairman and journalist Felicitas von Lovenberg.

The list of nominees for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) was announced today at the Frankfurt Book Fair by Boel Westin, the incoming chair of the ALMA jury. The list includes 50 first-time nominees among a total of 197 candidates from 61 countries.

“I am so excited to be taking charge of the jury’s activities. We are all looking forward to learning more about the works and accomplishments of the nominees,” said professor Westin after making the announcement.

The candidates – authors, illustrators, oral storytellers, and individuals and organisations involved in reading promotion work – have been nominated by over 100 organisations worldwide. The nominating bodies, with expertise in children’s and young adult literature, are allowed to nominate candidates from their own country or region and from other countries as well.

Professor Westin commented:
“The list of nominees is a wonderful directory of active authors, storytellers, illustrators and reading promoters of various kinds. I hope the list will be distributed and discussed in every conceivable context with a connection to children’s and young adult literature and storytelling.”

The 2015 laureate will be announced on 31 March 2015.

Link to list of nominees here.

Nominated Candidates for 2015 to be revealed on October 9th

Photo: Stefan Tell

On 9 October, the nominees for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) are presented at the international Frankfurt Book Fair. The list of candidates is presented by Boel Westin, Chairman of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award jury.

The program begins at 4:00 pm with the following participants: Silke Weitendorf, Publishing Director at Oetinger Verlag, Jury Chairman Boel Westin, ALMA Director Helen Sigeland and moderator Felicitas von Lowenberg, culture journalist at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Program

4:00 pm         Welcome by Gabi Rauch-Kneer, Vice President of the Frankfurt Book Fair

4:05 pm         The Work and World of Barbro Lindgren

4:30 pm         The 2014 Announcement and Beyond

4:40 pm         Presentation of the nominated candidates for 2015

5:00 pm         Reception

Venue: Frankfurt Book Fair, Children‘s Book Centre, 3.0 K 137

The list of the nominated candidates will be published on www.alma.se/en after the end of the program.

Photo: Stefan Tell

Today the nomination process for 2015 opens

The opportunity to nominate one or more candidates for the 2015 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) begins today.

Only nominating bodies approved by the jury are allowed to nominate candidates to the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. Today the award office has established contact with several hundreds of organsiations worldwide.

The number of nominees has been steadily increasing since the award was founded 12 years ago. For the 2014 award, 238 candidates from 68 countries are nominated.

The nomination process closes on May 15. The nominees for 2015 will be announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair on October 9, 2014.

Photo: Alexander Heimann, Frankfurt Buchmesse. Anna Thalbach talks to Director Helen Sigeland and Jury Chairman Larry Lempert on the subject of the 2013 Laureate Isol. Frankfurt Book Fair, October 2013.

Global perspective generates exciting candidate list

The nominations for Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award the 2014 were presented today at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The list includes 238 candidates from 68 countries. Up 15% on the 2013 figure, the number of nominations continues the upward trend seen over the past few years.

– We owe the efforts of our active nominating bodies for this impressive list, says Larry Lempert, Chairman of the ALMA jury. Many nominating bodies have chosen not only to nominate their compatriots, but also to propose candidates from other countries. This shows that our nominating bodies have a global perspective in their work.

Each nominating body can nominate up to four candidates: two from its own country and two from other countries. More than 100 bodies worldwide have nominated authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters for the 2014 award.

– This makes the list a goldmine for anyone interested in current children’s and young adult literature and reading promoting work around the world, Mr Lempert notes.

Of this year’s candidates, 54 are first-time nominees.

The laureate or recipients of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2014 will be announced on 25 March 2014. The award will be presented at a ceremony in the Stockholm Concert Hall on 2 June 2014.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The award, which amounts to SEK 5 million, is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible. The award is designed to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature. The UN convention of rights of the child is the foundation of our work. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations all over the world. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.

Reactions on the nominated candidates

It´s interesting to follow the reactions on the release of the nominated candidates for 2013 in twitter, blogs and digital articles. Here´s a few good posts, Arabic Read Kutub KIDS, Spanish Xerais, Australian Bookseller and Publisher, Polish Rzeczpospolita and Swedish Bookwitch.

Does anyone have other suggestions?

Full list of nominees available here.

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 announcement of nominees on YouTube

207 candidates from 67 countries

Today Larry Lempert, chairman of the jury for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), announced that 207 candidates from 67 countries have been nominated for the 2013 award, including 61 first-time nominees. The announcement was made at the international Frankfurt Book Fair.

This figure is notably higher than last year’s total of nominees. The number of nominating bodies has also increased. The nominating bodies comprise organisations and research institutions at international, national and regional level working in the fields of children’s and young adult literature and reading promotion.

– The increase in the number of nominees and nominating bodies is evidence of a growing desire to highlight examples of top-quality writing and reading promotion work on the international stage, says Larry Lempert.

Living writers, illustrators, oral storytellers and active reading promoting organisations are eligible for the award. Of the nominees for 2013, 37% are writers, 25% illustrators, 14% reading promotion groups, 13% both writers and illustrators, 5% individual reading promoters and 1% oral storytellers. Among the 207 candidates, 5% have been nominated in multiple categories. The 177 nominated individuals comprise 93 men and 84 women.

The recipient or recipients of the 2013 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be announced on 26 March 2013 at 1 pm.

Link to list of all candidates here.