Kanoon nominees for ALMA 2023 announced by Iran

on May 18, 2022

The Iranian Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCY-Kanoon) unveiled its Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award candidates on Tuesday (ALMA).

Hamidreza Shahabadi and Reza Dalvand, a writer and an illustrator, will compete for the coveted award, which is given out by the Swedish government every year to encourage children's and youth's literature around the world.

Other Iranian cultural centers allowed to choose Iran's submissions for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award which include the Institute for Research on the History of Children's Literature and the Children's Book Council of Iran.

Shahabadi, the manager of Madreseh Publications and a publisher of school textbooks was also nominated for the award in 2021 and 2022.

He is the author of "A Smiling Banana," which was chosen for the 2021 Collection for Young People with Disabilities by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). He's also the author of the braille thriller "No One Dares to Do That." "Goethe Street Café," "When Moji Was Lost," and "Vertical Cemetery" are among his other credits.

Dalvand, 32, the illustrator of numerous novels, including "Where Is My House?" and "The Gluttonous Washing Machine," as well as "Gulistan" and "Mrs. Bibi's Elephant."

Many solo and group exhibits in England, Japan, South Korea, Ukraine, and other nations have featured his work.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is worth SEK 5 million (about €570,000), making it the richest award for children's and young adult literature in the world. The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs founded the award in 2002 to honor Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren and to encourage children's and youth's literature from throughout the world.

More than 250 people and organizations from all around the world are nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award each year. Authors, artists, oral storytellers, and reading advocates are among the contenders.

Each year, the twelve-member jury has the difficult but enjoyable responsibility of evaluating contenders and picking one laureate (or several).

The laureate for 2023 will be announced in March at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy by the jury. ALMA 2022 was awarded by Swedish illustrator Eva Lindstrom. She has 35 solo novels to her credit and has illustrated other books by various authors.