Aussie Nabs Lindgren

Australian children’s author Sonya Hartnett is the winner of this year’s Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.

Hartnett, 39, was first published at the age of 15 and has since written 18 novels for children, teens, and adults, some of which have been translated into German, Swedish, and Chinese. Hartnett often depicts situations of power and dependence in small groups: a family, a group of friends, a pair of twins. The jury cited her as “one of the major forces for renewal in modern young adult fiction.” Established by the Swedish government in 2002, the award comes with an estimated $800,000 cash prize.