Tuesday, 29 March 2011

Shaun Tan: winner of the ALMA award 2011


Winner of 2011’s ALMA award (The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award) is Australian illustrator Shaun Tan. I have only seen parts of his already awarded picture book The Arrival (2006), and been very impressed. Just take a look at this one picture, which is from that book. Amazing.
From the press release:

Shaun Tan is a masterly visual storyteller, pointing the way ahead to new possibilities for picture books. His pictorial worlds constitute a separate universe where nothing is self-evident and anything is possible. Memories of childhood and adolescence are fixed reference points, but the pictorial narrative is universal and touches everyone, regardless of age.

Behind a wealth of minutely detailed pictures, where civilization is criticized and history depicted through symbolism, there is a palpable warmth. People are always present, and Shaun Tan portrays both our searching and our alienation. He combines brilliant, magical narrative skill with deep humanism.

Sounds pretty good to me, and a worthy winner. I must get my hands on that book now, before it sells out.

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