Hans Christian Andersen Awards
DAVID ALMOND AND MICHAEL FOREMAN NOMINATED FOR INTERNATIONAL HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN AWARDS 2010
David Almond and Michael Foreman Event
- Thursday 3 December 2009
- Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, Webber Street, London, SE1 8QW
- 6.30 for 7pm
- Tickets: £10 (£7 for IBBY Members and concessions)
- Contact John Dunne: 023 8069 3000 / j.dunne@tiscali.co.uk
David Almond and Michael Foreman will be talking about their work and signing copies of their books.
The award winning authors David Almond and author/illustrator Michael Foreman have been nominated for the top prize in international children’s literature. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are given biennially to a living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature. The award is given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) and David Almond and Michael Foreman have been nominated by the British Section. Nominations have also been received from more than 50 other national sections.
The announcement of the winners will be made at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in April 2010 and the Awards will be presented later that year at the IBBY World Congress in Santiago de Compostela. Her Majesty Queen Margrethe ll of Denmark is Patron of these Awards.
David Almond came to prominence with the publication of “Skellig”(1998) which became a best selling book and later a play, an operetta and most recently a film. Born in the northeast of England, he became a teacher and always wanted to be a writer. His initial success came with writing stories for adults but with the publication of “Skellig”, a new seam of writing opened up which saw him explore his own childhood and its locale. Many of his novels and short stories are aimed at older children and he has recently published two books for younger children, with illustrators Polly Dunbar and Dave McKean respectively.
Michael Foreman has written and illustrated more than 50 of his own books, in addition to illustrating more than 150 books by other writers. Born in Suffolk in 1938, he grew up there during the Second World War. This had a lasting and creative influence on his work most notably in his autobiographical “War Boy” (1989) and “After the War Was Over” (1995), and his latest book “A Child’s Garden” (2009). He has travelled widely and has used the sketches he made to great effect in “Mia’s Story” (2006), set in South America, as well as a number of fairy tale collections from around the world.