The Hans Christian Andersen Award

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is given every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to one writer and one illustrator of children’s books. It recognises a complete body of work rather than a single book. The award for writing has been given since 1956; the award for illustration since 1966. Each recipient receives a gold medal and a diploma, presented during the biennial IBBY World Congress.

The award has been shared once: in 1968 the writing award went to both James Krüss and José María Sánchez-Silva. That makes 37 writing laureates and 31 illustration laureates to 2026.

Nomination

Candidates are nominated by IBBY’s national sections. For the 2026 award, IBBY reported 78 candidates from 44 countries. The jury draws up a shortlist and then chooses the two winners, who in recent editions have been announced at IBBY’s press conference at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Selection criteria

IBBY describes the criteria as the aesthetic and literary qualities of the writing and illustration, the ability to see things from the child’s point of view, and the ability to stretch the child’s curiosity and imagination. The jury considers the candidate’s complete works.

The jury

The jury is made up of specialists in children’s literature from different countries, working under a Jury President. The President is elected by the IBBY General Assembly. The members are selected by IBBY’s Executive Committee: the jury for the 2010 award, for example, was chosen at the Committee’s meeting in Bologna in March 2009. The IBBY President and the Executive Director have taken part ex officio.

In 2002 the jury was divided for the first time into two sections, one judging writing and one judging illustration, each of five members.

The first President of the jury was Jella Lepman, the founder of IBBY. The full list of presidents is given in the table of editions below, alongside each year’s laureates and the city of that year’s IBBY World Congress.