TEHRAN -- Iran has announced its nominees for the 2017 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a prestigious Swedish honor to promote children’s and youths’ literature in the world.

The nominees are author Farhad Hassanzadeh, illustrator Pejman Rahimizadeh and children’s literature expert Turan Mirhadi.

A mobile library program initiated by Iran’s Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults (IIDCYA) to promote reading in remote regions and villages has also been nominated for the award. 

The nominees have been selected by the Children’s Book Council of Iran, the Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature, and the IIDCYA.

The prize worth SEK 5 million (about $600,000) is the largest international children’s and young adults’ literature award in the world.  

The award was established in 2002 by the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs to commemorate writer Astrid Lindgren and to promote children’s and youths’ literature from around the world.

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