Author Irma Malatsidze, Nikozi art school nominated by Georgia for Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Nominees for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award are announced at Frankfurt Book Fair events each year. Photo: ALMA.
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Children's author Irma Malatsidze and the School of Art in the central Georgian village of Nikozi have been selected as the country's nominees for the next edition of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in Stockholm.
In the 2021 edition of the prize promoted as “the World's Largest Children's Literature Award”, Malatsidze, a writer and translator, and the Nikozi school, named after the late 19th century bishop St Aleksandre Okropiridze, will be the two candidates from Georgia.
Malatsidze has published works in children's literature since 2004 and was unveiled as a winner of Georgia's 2018 Pen Marathon contest at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
A co-founder of the Children's Literature Development Fund in Georgia, she has also been nominated for the Saba Literary Award in Georgia, with her work featured in literary publications, collections and primary school textbooks.
Author Irma Malatsidze (middle) was unveiled as a winner of Georgia's 2018 Pen Marathon contest at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Photo via Diogene Publishers.
The Nikozi Art School was established in 2009 on the initiative of Diocese Metropolitan of Tskhinvali-Nikozi, Isaiah, who is also founder of the annual Nikozi International Animated Film Festival.
Along with classes of Georgian and foreign languages, the school teaches animation, visual arts and more. The latter two classes are supported by the Embassy of Poland in Georgia.
The school and the children's author were nominated by the National Parliamentary Library of Georgia, the body selecting candidates for the ALMA prize from the country every year.
Organisers for the ALMA prize accept nominations for authors, illustrators, “oral storytellers and reading promoters”, with nominees unveiled at annual Frankfurt Book Fair events before a laureate is announced the following spring.
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.
Three Georgian nominees are in contention for the largest international award for children and young adult literature next year, with both individual authors and a book organisation selected for the shortlist of candidates from around the world.
The National Parliamentary Library of Georgia is celebrating the Mother Language Day by exhibiting print editions of Deda Ena, a classic elementary school textbook for Georgian from 1876, in an online exposition.
For the first time in its history, this year's World Book Day will be marked remotely in Georgia, with organisers preparing everything from book presentations to author talks online.
Animation film enthusiasts will have to wait until 2021 to join the 10th anniversary edition of the International Animation Film Festival Nikozi in central Georgia, with organisers announcing a cancellation of the event due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Georgian literature and authors will meet their readers during the Frankfurt Book Fair again this year, with the world's largest event of the kind going ahead in altered form due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cultural events and festivals in one of Georgia's oldest villages will soon have a brand-new space, with the unveiling of the winning project for Nikozi Art Palace this month.
Six Georgian nominees have been unveiled for the 2022 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, with authors, illustrators and the Nikozi School of Art in central Georgia selected by organisers of the internationally renowned prize.
Georgian illustrators and children’s writers, along with a stand organised by the UNESCO programme Tbilisi - World Book Capital, will be hosted at this year’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair - an international event dedicated to children's publishing and multimedia industry - between March 21-24 in Italy.