Wonderfull news! The Italian translation of ‘Nine Open Arms’ has been nominated for the shortlist of the prestigious award Premio di Strega per ragazze et ragazzi 2017. The longlist in the category 11+ consisted of 45 books. The winner will be announced at the Bookfair of Bologna in spring 2017 but translator Anna Becchi and I are already celebrating this nomination.
Ludwig Volbeda, illustrator of ‘How Tortot lost his fish’s heart‘ has been nominated for ‘de Boekenpauw 2016‘ an Belgian award for the most beautiful children’s book. In my opinion a completely deserved nomination!
The winner will be anounced in november 2016.
The Haleweinprize is a prize for literature which will be awarded to an author and not to just to one of his or her books. Also the jury does not make a difference between so called youth-literature and literature for adults, something I am very happy about. The winner will be selected in april 2017. Among the nominees are authors like Rashid Novaire and Martin Driessen.