By Ogova Ondego
Published October 2, 2015
Nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) 2016, touted as the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature, shall be presented at Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany on October 15, 2015.
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The nomination ceremony shall begin at 4.00 pm with the presentation of South African promoting reading organisation, Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa (PRAESA), the laureate for 2015.
The SEK 5 million ALMA, that is given annually to a single laureate or to several, may be won by authors, illustrators, oral storytellers or reading promoters.
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ALMA is designed to promote interest in literature for children and young adults. Organisers of ALMA say its foundation is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations around the world.
Some of the ALMA-nominating organisations for the 2016 edition of the prize are Albania’s Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators; Algeria’s Syndicat National des Editeurs des Livres (SNEL); Angola’s Biblioteca Nacional de Angola; Australia’s Children’s Book Council of Australia; Belarus’s Belarus Writers Association; Egypt’s Bibliotheca Alexandrina IFLA; Eritrea’s Eritrea Publishers Association (ERIPA); Kenya’s Kenya Literature Bureau and National Book Development Council of Kenya, and North Korea’s Grand People’s Study House (DPRK).
Other nominating organisations shall be drawn from Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Zambia, among many other countries around the globe.
Founded by the Swedish government in 2002, ALMA is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.
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