TEHRAN – The Children’s Book Council of Iran announced its shortlist for the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award on Tuesday.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award, nicknamed the Nobel Prize for children’s literature, is the highest international distinction given to the creators of books for young people.

Given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) in Basel, Switzerland, the Hans Christian Andersen Awards recognize lifelong achievement and are given to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made a significant and lasting contribution to literature for young people.

The shortlist includes illustrators Hoda Haddadi, Rashn Kheirieh and Alireza Golduzian, one of whom will soon be picked by the council as the final nominee for the prize. 

Haddadi has been chosen for creating a womanly world with special regard for nature in her works, her respect for peace and efforts for making affectionate characters as well as her style inspired by Persian painting – Iranian miniature.

Haddadi has illustrated dozens of books, some of which have won her international acclaim.

She won the gold medal for best illustrator at the 2017 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in Traverse City, in the U.S. state of Michigan.

She received the award for her illustrations for “Drummer Girl”, a book written by Pakistani author Hiba Masood.

Kheirieh has been picked for her skill in the creation of attractive characters with various actions and new language for expressing literary elements, and her ability for making minimal atmospheres, which take their inspiration from Persian painting.

Kheirieh’s works have been showcased at numerous international events. She has received several acknowledgments and prizes, including the Medal of Encouragement from Noma, Japan in 2002 and 2008, New Horizons from the International Book Festival Bologna, Italy in 2009, International Festival of Illustrators, Katha, India in 2005 and the Golden Apple of the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB) in 2011.

Golduzian has been selected for his personal and diverse views in each of his works, and his skill for illustrating and designing a vast variety of forms, places and characters inspired by Iranian and the world’s illustration arts.

Golduzian won a silver prize at the 9th edition of the Flying Turtle Awards for his illustrations for a Persian translation of Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s “Think of Others” by Hossein Mottaqi.

Photo: A combination photo shows books illustrated by Hoda Haddadi, Rashn Kheirieh and Alireza Golduzian.

MMS/YAW