TEHRAN -- Three Iranian children’s book writers and an illustrator have been nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award annually presented by the Swedish government, the Mehr News Agency reported on Thursday.

Mohammadreza Bairami of the Pen Society of Iran, Janet Mikhaiili of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, Turan Mirhadi of the Institute for Research on History of Children’s Literature, and Hushang Moradi Kermani of the Children’s Book Council are the four contenders for the award in 2007.

The award ceremony is held in May at the Skansen Open-Air Museum in Stockholm and a great number of nominations from over 200 countries and organizations will be competing for this year’s award.

As the world’s largest for children’s and youth literature, and the second-largest literature prize in the world, the award was initiated in 2002 to honor the Swedish writer Astrid Lindgren and to promote children’s and youth literature around the world.

The cash prize is five million Swedish kronor, which is awarded to one or more recipients including authors, illustrators, story-tellers, and promoters of reading, regardless of their languages or nationalities.

The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is administered by the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs.

The U.S. writer Katherine Paterson won the 2006 award.

The award has been presented to Philip Pullman (UK), Lygia Bojunga (Brazil), Christine Nostlinger (Austria), Maurice Sendak (USA), and Ryoji Arai (Japan) over the past few years.