Shaun Tan Wins Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Australian artist and writer Shaun Tan is the winner of the 2011 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, honoring children’s and young-adult literature. The award, which is presented by the Swedish Arts Council, is accompanied by a cash prize of 5 million krona ($764,600), and is the world’s largest financial award for children’s and young-adult works.

Tan’s win follows close on the heels of another: this February he won an Oscar in the Best Animated Short Film category for The Lost Thing, a film based on his eponymous illustrated book. Tan has written and illustrated more than 20 books, including The Rabbits (1998) with John Marsden, The Lost Thing (2000), The Arrival (2006) and Tales from Outer Suburbia (2008), as well as theatrical and film adaptations.

The jury stated that Tan’s work “portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.” The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award will be presented to Tan at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden on May 31, 2011.