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| Laurie Halse Anderson | |
American author Laurie Halse Anderson has been named laureate of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, which is given annually to authors, illustrators, oral storytellers and reading promoters "for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature." The winner receives five million Swedish kronor (about $466,200). The award ceremony will be held May 30 in Stockholm.
The jury's citation said: "In her tightly written novels for young adults, Laurie Halse Anderson gives voice to the search for meaning, identity, and truth, both in the present and the past. Her darkly radiant realism reveals the vital role of time and memory in young people’s lives. Pain and anxiety, yearning and love, class and sex are investigated with stylistic precision and dispassionate wit. With tender intensity, Laurie Halse Anderson evokes, moods, and emotions and never shies from even the hardest things."
Anderson is the author of more than 30 books, including Shout; Speak; The Impossible Knife of Memory; and Wintergirls. The prize organizers noted: "In her richly expressive novels for young people--all narrated in the first person--Anderson gives voice to the adolescent experience with sometimes brutal honesty. Here is resignation, even desperation, but also a determination for change kept alive by the search for meaning, identity, and truth. The yearning for love and belonging is a recurring theme for Anderson.... Alongside her writing, she is powerfully committed to issues related to sexual violence, diversity, and book censorship."