An Australian author and illustrator who nabbed an Oscar in February can now add the world's most lucrative children's literary award to his trophy case.
Shaun Tan, author and illustrator of picture books The Arrival and The Lost Thing, is winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, organizers announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.
The annual honour awards five million kroner (about $766,000 Cdn) to a writer, illustrator or storyteller for his or her outstanding contribution to children's or young adult literature.
"Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books," the jury said in its citation.
"His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone."
Tan will receive the award at a ceremony later this year.
The Melbourne-based writer has published more than 20 titles, including The Rabbits, The Red Tree and Tales from Outer Suburbia. His work has been translated into more than 10 languages.
In February, Tan won an Academy Award for best animated short for his 15-minute film The Lost Thing, based on a story he published in 2000.
Established by the Swedish Arts Council in 2002, the Lindgren Prize celebrates writers who work in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren, author of the Pippi Longstocking tales. Previous winners have included Maurice Sendak and Philip Pullman.
Comments