2016 HCAA Jury

IBBY Announces the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is the highest international distinction given to authors and illustrators of children's books.  Given every other year by IBBY, the Hans Christian Andersen Awards recognize lifelong achievement and are given to an author and an illustrator whose complete works have made an important, lasting contribution to children's literature.

The 2016 Jury, selected by IBBY's Executive Committee from nominations made by its national sections, comprises the following ten distinguished members from across the globe.  Jury President Patricia Aldana (Toronto, Canada) will lead the Jury to select the winners of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen awards.

  • Kirsten Bystrup from Frederiksværk, Denmark is a librarian whose Masters degree in Children’s Literature was on the mediation of picture books in kindergartens, with an emphasis on pictures and the intervention of librarians.
  • Reina Duarte from Barcelona, Spain manages the publications department at the EDEBE Group, focusing on fiction and non-fiction for children and young adults.
  • Andrej Ilc from Ljubljana, Slovenia is an editor and Head of the fiction department at the Mladinska knjiga Publishing House.
  • Yasmine Motawy from Cairo, Egypt is a senior instructor at the Department of Rhetoric and Composition of the American University of Cairo.
  • María Beatriz Medina from Caracas, Venezuela is the Executive Director of Banco del Libro. She is also a professor of Children’s Literature at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
  • Dolores Prades from São Paulo, Brazil and nominated by IBBY Cuba, is a publisher and consultant for children’s literature.
  • Lola Rubio from Buenos Aires, Argentina is an editor and librarian and currently the Academic Secretary of ALIJA/IBBY Argentina. 
  • Susan M. Stan from Minneapolis, USA is Professor Emerita at the Central Michigan University, where she was a professor from 2006 up to her retirement in 2014
  • Qing Wu from Beijing, China is a former professor at the Foreign Studies University in Beijing.  She has a deep interest in human rights, in particular rights for children and women.
  • Shohreh Yousefi from Tehran, Iran is a preschool education manager and children’s literature expert, as well as an editor at the Daftar Feni Publishing House for children and young people.

Former IBBY Vice President Elda Nogueira (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and IBBY Executive Director Liz Page are ex officio Jury members.