Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award Winners Announced

This year's winners of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature are illustrator Ryôji Arai (Japan) and author Phillip Pullman (United Kingdom). The Award was established by the Swedish government in memory of the beloved Swedish author Astrid Lindgren, the author of the Pippi Longstocking and other children's books, who died in 2002. According to the Award website, "The award is for life-long work or artistry rather than for individual pieces...The body of work must uphold the highest artistic quality and evoke the deeply humanistic spirit that Astrid Lindgren treasured."