Sweden's Eva Lindström wins the Astrid Lindgren Prize for children's literature

Copenhagen, 22 Mar The Swedish illustrator Eva Lindström has continued to be distinguished this Tuesday in Stockholm with the Astrid Lindgren Prize, one of the most prestigious in children's literature. Lindström (Västerås, 1952), who has published around thirty books and illustrated works by other authors, writes stories “that move between everyday and existential, combining intelligent humor with absurd mystery”, according to the ruling. “His enigmatic world of images is continually being transformed. The trees move abroad, the dogs take on gigantic proportions and the objects vanish and suddenly reappear,” the jury said. Lindström succeeds in the winners of the Jean-Claude Mourlevat French prize, distinguished in 2021 for his ability to renew the genre of children's literature. Endowed with 5 million Swedish kronor (about 479,000 euros, about $528,000), the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Literature Prize (ALMA), as the award is really called, recognizes authors, illustrators and initiatives that encourage reading in the spirit of the creator of characters such as “Pippi Longsocks”. The aim of the prize - instituted in 2003, one year after Lindgren's death, by the Government of Sweden - is to enhance and increase interest in children's and young people's literature worldwide and to promote children's right to culture globally.