More international accolades for Shaun Tan

Australian illustrator and CAL member Shaun Tan was awarded the world’s biggest children’s literature prize, the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in Sweden on 29 March.

The Award was established in 2003 by the Swedish government to honour the memory of Astrid Lindgren, one of Sweden’s most important authors, and to promote interest in children’s and young adult literature around the world. The winner receives five million Swedish krona in prize money (A$765,000).

In commenting on this year’s winner, the jury of the Award said ‘Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. 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, regardless of age.’

Last month, Shaun Tan won an Oscar for his animated short film, The Lost Thing.

For further information about the Award click here.

View an article from The Sydney Morning Herald

Item posted on 30 March 2011.