Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award goes to Baek Heena

Baek Heena, one of Korea’s most recognized picture book artists, has won the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. The award is the world's largest children's literature award.

The announcement was made live by the jury from Astrid Lindgren’s home at Dalagatan in Stockholm without the traditional audience in the room.

With exquisite feeling for materials, looks and gestures, Baek Heena’s filmic picture books stage stories about solitude and solidarity. In her evocative miniature worlds, cloud bread and sorbet moons, animals, bath fairies and people converge. Her work is a doorway to the marvellous: sensuous, dizzying and sharp.

Citation of the jury

With a background in film animation, Baek Heena's unique visual style features handmade miniature figurines and environments painstakingly lighted and photographed. She has published thirteen picture books that are popular throughout Asia, a number of which have been translated. One of her most successful books, Cloud Bread, was published in English in 2011.

Read more about Baek Heena

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) is the world's largest award for children's and young adult literature. The award amounts to SEK 5 million and is given annually to a single laureate or to several. Authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters are eligible for the award, which is designed to promote interest in children's and young adult literature. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the foundation of our work. An expert jury selects the laureate(s) from candidates nominated by institutions and organisations all over the world. The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.

Image: from Magic Candies, Baek Heena, 2017