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Bart Moeyaert and the ALMA effect

A year ago Bart Moeyaert was announced as the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2019.

Having been nominated no fewer than sixteen times, he was visibly emotional as he accepted a bouquet of flowers at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair while listening to the jury report, which opened with: ‘Bart Moeyaert’s condensed and musical language vibrates with suppressed emotions and unspoken desires.’ Goosebumps all around!

In May 2019 he was presented with the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award by Sweden’s crown princess at an evening in Stockholm dedicated to his work.

Picture of Bart Moeyaert with crown princess Victoria at the award show
Bart Moeyaert receives the ALMA from crown princess Victoria of Sweden

It is fair to say that we have seen an ALMA effect at work: we have received many grant applications from foreign publishers who want to publish his books. Listed below are the translations of Moeyaert’s ‘Everyone’s Sorry Nowadays’ which have already appeared, while many more foreign-language editions of his work are being planned for the year to come. It’s wonderful to see the effect of a major international prize.

Translations of 'Everyone's Sorry Nowadays'

  • The Norwegian translation by Hedda Vormeland: 'Nå heter alle Sorry' (Cappelen Damm, 2020)
  • The Italian translation by Laura Pignatti: 'Bianca' (Sinnos, 2019)
  • The German translation by Bettina Bach: 'Bianca' (Carl Hanser Verlag, 2020)
  • The Latvian translation by Inese Paklone: 'Tagad visus sauc Sorry' (Petergailis, 2019)
  • The Swedish translation by Annika Johansson: 'Alla är ledsna nuförtiden' (Lilla Piratförlaget, 2019)

Winner 2020

Last week the 2020 winner was announced: this year’s prize is going to the Korean Baek Heena. Congratulations!