Writer Abbas Jahangirian and illustrator Amir Shabanipoor, both from Iran, have been nominated for the 2027 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, a Swedish prize for children's and young adult literature.
The nominations appear on the award's published candidate list, which has 277 candidates from 80 countries and regions. Of these, 85 are new this year.
According to Tehran Times, the public relations office of the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, known as Kanoon, announced the two nominations on Saturday.
The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, known as ALMA, does not publish the name of the body that puts forward each candidate. The attribution of the two nominations to Kanoon comes only from Tehran Times, which cites the institute.
Mr Jahangirian is nominated in the writing category. Mr Shabanipoor is nominated as an illustrator. Tehran Times spells his surname Shabanipour, while ALMA and Kayhan spell it Shabanipoor.
Tehran Times said Mr Jahangirian has more than five decades of experience as a fiction writer, playwright, researcher and educator. Kayhan, an Iranian newspaper, describes his career in similar terms.
According to Tehran Times, his work covers the environment, peaceful coexistence and relations between generations. It also features children with disabilities as lead characters.
Other Iranians are on the list. They are the writer Atoosa Salehi, the illustrators Alireza Goldouzian and Hoda Haddadi, and a reading-promotion programme called Read with Me, according to ALMA, Tehran Times and Kayhan.
Kayhan said these candidates were nominated through other Iranian organisations, including the Children's Book Council of Iran. Kayhan is a hardline, state-aligned publication, and Tehran Times is also an Iranian outlet.
Tehran Times said the award has four categories: writing, illustration, oral storytelling and reading promotion.
ALMA said the laureate will be announced on 6 April 2027. Kayhan reported that the announcement will take place during the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
The prize is worth five million Swedish kronor. ALMA describes it as the largest of its kind. Its most recent laureate is Jon Klassen, according to the award's website.
No reaction from the Swedish organisers had been reported beyond the publication of the list. No statements from the nominees themselves were included in the reports seen.
The Swedish government created the award in 2002 to promote every child's right to great stories, according to ALMA. It is given to an individual or organisation for an outstanding contribution to children's and young adult literature.
The Swedish Arts Council administers the award, according to the publishers' agency Rights & Brands.
Several Iranian bodies hold the right to nominate candidates, according to earlier Tehran Times reports from 2024 and 2025. They include Kanoon, the Institute for Research on History of Children's Literature, the Children's Book Council of Iran and the Iranian Association of Writers for Children and Youth.
Tehran Times has reported that around 250 individuals and organisations are nominated worldwide each year.
Iran has put forward candidates in earlier years. For the 2025 award, the Iranian Association of Writers for Children and Youth nominated Ahmad Akbarpour and Hoda Haddadi, Tehran Times reported in June 2024.
For the 2026 award, the Children's Book Council of Iran nominated Arman Arian and Ms Haddadi, according to a Tehran Times report in July 2025.
Tehran Times also reported that Kanoon announced nominees for the 2023 award, in May 2022.
Ms Haddadi therefore appears on the Iranian nomination lists for three consecutive award years in the reports cited.
All 277 candidates on the 2027 list are nominees. The ALMA jury chooses the laureate from this list, and the winner is due to be announced on 6 April 2027.
