Poet and translator Mariam Tsiklauri and illustration artist Giorgi Chachanidze are this year’s Georgian nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a major prize for children’s literature.
Tsiklauri, an award-winning poet, and Chachanidze, an artist who has featured in solo and group displays, were nominated for the honour during the Tbilisi International Book Fair, which came to a close last week.
The nominations were presented by the National Parliamentary Library General Director Giorgi Kekelidze, in keeping with the institution’ annual selection of national nominees for the Award.
Aimed to highlight the work of the two creatives to an international audience of the ALMA award, the nominations were revealed as annual deadline for the Swedish-based prize’s shortlists came to end last month.
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Tsiklauri, a winner of the 2010 Makvala Mrevlishvili Medal and Prize for "contribution to the development of Georgian children's literature", has authored around 30 works and been awarded in national book of the year nominations.
A winner of the Iakob Gogebashvili Prize for Poetry Collection of the Year, she also co-founded the Foundation for the Development of Children's Literature, which was nominated for the ALMA honour in 2011.
Tsiklauri also founded the Georgian Children's Book Day in 2006 and was featured in the 2011 World Poetry Almanac that highlighted 180 poets from 100 countries.
The Tbilisi-born author and translator has also been distinguished with national Saguramo and Gala prizes and has worked in screenwriting.
Chachanidze, a teaching professor at the Tbilisi State Academy of Arts, has featured in exhibitions of illustration art for children’s books at the Library and other venues.
A teacher of over two decades, he has worked in a multitude of artistic genres and created illustrations for books and magazines, including publications themed on literature. Some of Chachanidze’s work can be viewed on the artist’s page on the Behance platform.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is promoted as “the World's Largest Children's Literature Award” and selects nominees every spring. The selected shortlist is unveiled at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the fall, with laureates of the prize announced early in the following year before the formal ceremony in May.
Organisers receive nominations for authors, illustrators, “oral storytellers and reading promoters” for their award.
Belgian author Peter Moeyaert won the latest ALMA edition in Stockholm in May.