The Alma Prize, Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, was established in 2002 by the Swedish government with the aim of honoring the memory of Astrid Lindgren and increasing interest in literature for children and young people around the world.

This year, 288 candidates from 71 different countries have been nominated and it is now clear that it is Eva Lindström who wins the honor and the prize money of five million crowns. She is thus the second Swedish winner of all time, the first being Barbro Lindgren in 2014.

– It’s weird. It’s unreal. I didn’t expect that, it’s not strange, there are a lot of nominees. So I just didn’t expect it, says Eva Lindström to Kulturnyheterna.

“An enigmatic world of constantly changing images”

The twelve-person jury, made up of authors, illustrators, critics and librarians, awards the prize to Eva Lindström with the following motivation:

“The enigmatic world of Eva Lindström’s images is constantly evolving. Trees move overseas, dogs grow to enormous proportions, and objects disappear only to suddenly return. With a quick brushstroke and dense color, Eva Lindström createsan ambiguous dialogue in text and image. The border is fluid between children, adults and animals. With deep seriousness and wild humour, they wrestle with the eternal questions: Who are we? Where are we going? Who took our hats?

“Uncompromising and cross-border”

Eva Lindström was born in 1952 in Västerås and lives in Stockholm. She started working as a designer in the 80s for, among others, Kamratposten and DN. Her first children’s book Kattmössan was published in 1988. Since then she has received the August Prize, the Elsa Beskow Plaque and the Snöbollen Picture Book Prize. Alma’s jury describes his art as uncompromising and cross-border and characterized by great originality.

She has created three cartoons and several of her stories have been filmed, including A Bird Day, My Friend Team and I Escape!. The latest book Nothing is impossible for us was published in 2021 and is about two young children and their dog who land on another planet.