Jon Klassen receives the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
This year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award goes to Canadian illustrator and picture book artist Jon Klassen. With precision, emotion and inventive wit, he portrays life’s challenges of uncertainty and hopefulness in an interplay of colour and form. The prize amounts to 5 million SEK (approx. 464 000 EUR, 530 000 USD) making it the world's largest award for children’s and young adult literature. The award will be presented by H.R.H. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden on May 25, 2026, at the Concert Hall in Stockholm.
The jury’s motivation:
“Through his subtle and evocative storytelling in words and pictures, Jon Klassen opens new perspectives on our place in the universe. What happens when a rock falls from the sky, when hats disappear or a skull begins living a life of its own? With precision, emotion and inventive wit, life’s challenges of uncertainty and hopefulness are portrayed in an interplay of colour and form. Jon Klassen’s brilliant tales stand out for their effortless elegance and ambiguous depth, where the reader becomes a co-creator.”
About Jon Klassen
Jon Klassen was born in 1981 in Winnipeg, Canada. His breakout book, I Want My Hat Back (2011), is a layered, ingeniously told tale of ownership and morality, right and wrong, that makes the reader work in more ways than one. While Jon Klassen is a skilfully minimalist storyteller, his illustrations are charged with potential meaning and leave plenty of room for ambiguity. I Want My Hat Back is the first in the so-called Hat Trilogy and is followed by This Is Not My Hat (2012) and We Found a Hat (2016).
One of Klassen’s ongoing projects is a board book series. The trio Your Forest, Your Farm and Your Island (2025) feature no actors, just nature, landscapes, objects, places, and environments presented in short, factual sentences. While the books are created for very young readers, they also open the door to broader perspectives.
As an illustrator, Klassen has developed a rich and shifting repertoire in his many projects with other authors. He is the illustrator of Sara Pennypacker’s Pax series and has published a number of noted children’s books with Mac Barnett, including a trilogy about geometric forms that begins with Triangle (2017).
Jon Klassen’s body of work forms a subtle, astute, and humorous investigation into existential questions, where feelings of anticipation, suspense, and shock play a central role. His books open new perspectives on life’s challenges of uncertainty and hopefulness.
Further information
An in-depth introduction to Jon Klassen, written by the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award jury, is at alma.se/en
André Vifot Haas
andre.vifot.haas@alma.se
+46 (0)76-540 10 33
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award
Kulturrådet, Box 27215, 102 53 Stockholm
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award was created in 2002 by the Swedish government to promote every child’s right to great stories. This global award is given annually to a person or organisation for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature. With a prize of five million Swedish kronor, it is the largest award of its kind. Administrated by the Swedish Arts Council.
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