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Bart Moeyaert receives 'Nobel Prize for youth literature'

On 2 April 2019 Bart Moeyaert received the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2019 at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. The author had been nominated for the sixteenth time and was finally awarded the prestigious prize in Bologna. In addition to the great honour that comes with the award, the prize money amounts to 5 million Swedish Kronor (approximately 480.000 euros).

Bart Moeyaert receives the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2019
Photo: Susanne Kronholm

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The ALMA was established in 2002 in memory of Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren, who passed away in the same year. Previous winners are Kitty Crowther, Shaun Tan, Wolf Erlbruch and Philip Pullman.

An expert jury selected Moeyaert from a long list of nominees from more than 60 different countries. In Flanders the selection is made by the Flemish Department of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY). In 2019 Bart Moeyaert was nominated for the sixteenth time. This award is an acknowledgement of the author's large and diverse body of work. At the same time it boosts the international standing of literature from Flanders.

Bart Moeyaert’s condensed and musical language vibrates with suppressed emotions and unspoken desires. He portrays relationships at crisis point with a cinematic immediacy, even as his complex narratives suggest new ways forward.
Citation of the jury

Bart Moeyaert was only nineteen years old when he made his debut in 1983. His work is originally published by Querido and has been translated into more than twenty different languages. Many of these translations were supported by Flanders Literature. Bart received almost every important Dutch-language and international literary prize for his work. To that list, he can now add this ‘Nobel Prize for youth literature’.