Jane Ray has been nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award by IBBY.
The Awards are the most prestigious in the international children’s book world and presented every other year by the International Board on Books for Young People. They honour a “living author and illustrator whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature”.
Jane is the author and illustrator of numerous books including Can You Catch A Mermaid, Heartsong (written by Kevin Crossley-Holland) and The Lost Happy Endings (written by Carol Ann Duffy).
The shortlists for the awards will be announced in January 2018 and the winners at the Bologna Book Fair 2018. The Awards will be presented to the winners at the 36th IBBY World Congress, in Istanbul, Turkey in September 2018.
Previous UK winners of the author award are: Eleanor Farjeon (1956), Aidan Chambers (2002) and David Almond (2010). Last year’s winner was Cao Wenxuan (China). Previous British winners of the illustrator award are Anthony Browne (2000) and Quentin Blake (2002). The 2016 winner was Rotraut Susanne Berner (Germany).
Congratulations, Jane!