Sonya Hartnett - winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award

Australian author Sonya Hartnett has been announced as the winner of this year's Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

She is the first Australian winner of the prestigious award, established by the Swedish Government in 2002. With prizemoney of five million Swedish Kroner (equivalent to approx. A$844,000), the Astrid Lingren Memorial Award is the world's richest children's and young people's literary award. The award is administered by The Swedish Arts Council.

The award's jury said of Hartnett: 'Sonya Hartnett is one of the major forces for renewal in modern young adult fiction. With psychological depth and a concealed yet palpable anger, she depicts the circumstances of young people without avoiding the darker sides of life. She does so with linguistic virtuosity and a brilliant narrative technique; her works are a source of strength.'

'She is one of the authors currently charting a new course in both form and content for teen fiction, bringing it closer to adult fiction and blurring the distinction. She also constantly pushes her own boundaries. No two works are alike. She skilfully adapts her beautiful, precise and illustrative language and her artful narrative technique to the requirements of each novel,' the judges said.

Now in its sixth year, the award will be presented, as in previous years, by Sweden's HRH Crown Princess Victoria at the prize ceremony on 28 May 2008 at Skansen in Stockholm. Also attending will be the Swedish Minister for Culture, Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth.

The annual international prize 'may be awarded to authors, illustrators, narrators and/or promoters of reading whose work reflects the spirit of Astrid Lindgren. The object of the award is to increase interest in children's and young people's literature, and to promote children's rights to culture on a global level.'

For more details, see the award's website at http://www.alma.se/default_a.aspx?id=247&epslanguage=EN

Sonya Hartnett has been translated into a number of languages, including Danish, German, Swedish, Italian and Chinese. She has won numerous awards, including the Guardian Children's Literature Prize in the UK for Thursday's Child (Penguin) in 2002 and the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA) Book of the Year Award for Younger Readers in 2005 for The Silver Donkey (Puffin).

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