Awarded the Nordic Council prize
Rán Flygenring is the second Icelander to be awarded a prize in this category. Photo/The Nordic Council
The Icelandic author Rán Flygenring has been awarded the Nordic Council Children's and Young People's Literature Prize for her picture book Volcanic eruption, published last year.
Flygenring is the second Icelander to receive the award, which was first awarded in 2013.
Awarded ISK six million
The prize was awarded to Flygenring at a ceremony at the Oslo Opera and Ballet last week. The prize was presented by Norwegian author Maja Lunde.
Flygenring received the prize called ‘Northern Lights’ and in gratitude received DKK three hundred thousand, or nearly six million Icelandic kronas.
The reasoning for the decision was given by the Nordic Council in a statement.
It says that Flygenring has managed to create a picture book filled with visual explosiveness about the impact that wild and uninhabited nature has on people and that the pictures and text are artistically interwoven into a vibrant and very funny story.
At the same time, Flygenring demonstrates how contrastic feelings arise when the earth splits, lava flows, new mountains are created and when we confront everyday threats. Thus, the story is permeated with a thick tension that arises from the interaction between the overwhelming big issues and the tiny issues.
The pictures are filled with intriguing and funny details
In the reasoning of the jury, Flygenring is also praised highly for the pictures that the book has to offer.
“The pictures in the book are full of intriguing and funny details that captivate the young reader,” the jury reasoned, “which says that what she manages to create with his illustrations is an important reminder.”
“Beside this multi-colored spectacle, the pale-skinned human beings become a reminder that we are all, just like tourists, just here to visit.”
Eight Icelandic nominations
A total of 54 works, projects and artists were nominated for the Nordic Council prize this year, with eight nominations from Iceland.
The prize is awarded for contributions to the environment, literature, children's and young people's literature, film and music.
This year the Nordic Council’s Children’s and Young People’s Literature Prize was awarded for the tenth time, and Rán Flygenring is the second Icelander to win the prize, but the Icelandic author Arnar Már Arngrímsson won the prize in 2016 for his novel Sölvasaga unglings.
