By Iminza Keboge
Published May 23, 2018
The largest award for literature for children and youth in the world shall be presented on May 28, 2018.
The winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), Jacqueline Woodson of the United States of America, has already arrived in Sweden to participate in a week-long activities–lectures, school visits, meetings with young people and media, visiting Astrid Lindgren’s childhood home–that will culminate in the award presentation in the Swedish capital, Stockholm.
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Jacqueline Woodson, according to a statement from the Swedish Arts Council who organise the annual ALMA, ‘writes about turning points in young people’s lives and relationships in a world of prejudice and adversity.’
Woodson, who was born in 1963 and lives in Brooklyn, New York, published her first book in 1990 and has since written more than 30 novels, poetry and picture books that are translated into some 10 languages. Her most celebrated title is the award-winning memoir, Brown Girl Dreaming, shortly to be published in Swedish by Natur & Kultur as Brun flicka drömmer, translated by Athena Farrokhzad. She writes primarily for young teens, but also for children and adults.
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Writing on her website, Woodson says Brown Girl Dreaming, that was published in 2014, is the story of her childhood in verse.
“Raised in South Carolina and New York, I always felt halfway home in each place. In these poems, I share what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and my growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. It also reflects the joy of finding my voice through writing stories, despite the fact that I struggled with reading as a child. My love of stories inspired and stayed with me, creating the first sparks of the writer I was to become,” Jacqueline Woodson writes.
The story in the book is set in Columbus, Ohio; Greenville, South Carolina; and Brooklyn, New York, in USA.
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Why did she write it?
“I wanted to understand who my mom was before she was my mother and I wanted to understand exactly how I became a writer. So I started researching my life, asking relatives and talking to friends – and mostly, just letting myself remember,” she writes.
ALMA, which amounts to SEK 5 million (about US$572 000), is given annually to a single or several laureates drawn from among authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters. The award, ALMA organisers say, is designed to promote interest in the literature for children and youth. It was founded by the Swedish government in 2002 and is administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.
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