Hans Christian Andersen Awards 2028

Shereen Kreidieh holds a Bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a teaching diploma in early-childhood education from the American University in Beirut, a Master’s degree in children’s literature from the University of Surrey Roehampton, and a PhD in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University. In 1998, Shereen founded Dar Asala, a publishing house in Beirut that produces high quality children’s books in Arabic, and of which she remains general manager.

She is a member of several organizations in Lebanon and abroad, including the International Research Society for Childrens Literature. Shereen is currently the president of the Lebanese Board of Books for Young People (LBBY), as well as a lecturer of children’s literature and social work at Haigazian University in Lebanon. She is a member of the Book and Reading Promotion Committee within the Ministry of Culture in Lebanon. In addition, she regularly participates in tours and seminars that discuss the issues of publishing and children’s books.

Shereen served as a member of the 2018 and 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury.

Dr Nadia El-Kholy is Professor of English Literature in the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University. She served as Cultural Counsellor at the Egyptian Embassy in London from 2012 to 2015 and as Director of the National Council for Children's Culture. She has contributed to the Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children's Literature. She was co-editor of the Women Writing Africa series published by the Feminist Press in New York, and of the ASTENE publication Egypt in the Eyes of Travellers. She has published articles on modern Arabic and English novels and has translated Alice in Wonderland into Arabic. Her research interests include writing and translation for children, comparative and postcolonial literature, and gender studies. She served on the Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury in 2012, 2020, and 2026, and on the IBBY Executive Committee from 2010 to 2014.

Giorgia Grilli, PhD, is Associate Professor of Children's Literature and History of Illustration for Children at the Department of Education, University of Bologna. Her fields of interest are children's literature, picture books, young adult literature, literary genres, representations of childhood in literature and cinema, and children's literature as philosophical discourse and radical critique. She writes regularly on children's literature for academic and specialist journals. In 2024, she served on the international jury of the Bologna Ragazzi Award. In 2026, she served on the Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury. She translates theoretical essays on children's literature, as well as children's and young adult novels, from English into Italian.

Le Thu Phuong Quynh is a Vietnamese children's literature professional with over fifteen years of experience in publishing, editing, translation, and literacy development. She is currently Global Literacy Manager at Room to Read, where she leads editorial strategies and publishing initiatives across Vietnam, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Palestine, supporting the creation of culturally relevant books for children. She also serves as Chief Editor of Crabit Kidbooks, an independent Vietnamese publisher dedicated to high-quality picture books. Quynh has worked across the entire publishing process as editor, translator, author, and facilitator. She has authored or co-authored nine children's books and translated ten internationally acclaimed picture books from English and French into Vietnamese. She regularly facilitates workshops for writers, illustrators, and editors throughout Asia.

Dr Shailaja Menon is a language educator who currently leads early learning and literacy initiatives at Tata Trusts and is a founding member of the Early Learning Network of India (ELNI). Prior to this, she taught language, literacy, and children's literature courses at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and at Azim Premji University, Bangalore. She has spent over twenty-five years researching, teaching, and writing in the areas of early language, literacy, and children's literature. She is co-editor of Children's Books: An Indian Story (Eklavya, 2024), the Early Literacy Initiative: Resource and Practitioner Briefs series (Eklavya, 2020), and Childhoods in India: Traditions, Trends and Transformations (Routledge, 2017). She currently serves as an editor of the journal Contemporary Education Dialogue. She has served on several children's literature juries in India and internationally, including the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury.

Educated as a primary school teacher, Mare Müürsepp completed her doctoral thesis on the history and values of children's literature during the 20th century and has taught courses in children's literature at the Tallinn Pedagogical Institute (now Tallinn University) since 1984. She has decades of experience in international relations, has participated in numerous children's literature conferences, and has published articles on the field. She is a respected critic of children's literature and has served as a juror on multiple occasions, including for the Tower of Babel translated literature award, the Edgar Valter Illustration Award, the Estonian Cultural Endowment Literature Award, and the best books selection of the Estonian Society for the Welfare of Children. She sits on the board of IBBY Estonia and is active in other associations related to children's literature and reading. She served on the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury.

Ana Elsa (Anel) Pérez Martínez is a Mexican academic, professor, and cultural manager at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Her work focuses on children's and young adult literature, the teaching of Spanish, and the study and promotion of Mexican culture. She holds a master's degree in Mexican history and served as Director of Literature and Reading Promotion at UNAM, where she contributed to the development of programmes that bring books, oral storytelling, and literary experiences closer to diverse communities. She currently directs UNAM's Centre for Teaching Foreigners (CEPE). Her research explores the role of literature in addressing migration, racism, xenophobia, discrimination, territoriality, and climate change.

Josiane Polidori was Head of the Canadian Children's Book Collection at Library and Archives Canada (previously the National Library of Canada) from 2004 to 2017, where she edited the annual selection Read Up On It / Lisez sur le sujet, organised several book exhibitions, served as Programme Chair for the Fun of Reading symposium, and coordinated the French content for the Canada-wide TD Summer Reading Club. From 1989 to 2004, she managed the Governor General's Literary Awards and the Canada-Japan and Canada-Australia Literary Awards at the Canada Council for the Arts. She began her career in publishing at Libre Expression and in advertising for the Calgary Olympic Coin Programme at the Royal Canadian Mint. She holds a BA (Honours) in French literature from McGill University and studied at the Sorbonne. Since 2020, she has been Second Vice-President of IBBY Canada and co-chaired the Scientific Committee for the 2026 IBBY World Congress.

Sara Reis da Silva holds a PhD and has completed postdoctoral research in children's literature. She is a faculty member at the Institute of Education, University of Minho. Her teaching and research focus on children's literature and related fields, including literary studies, the pedagogy of literature, the promotion and mediation of reading, and children's illustration. She is a full member of the Centre for Research in Child Studies (CIEC-UM) and a member of the thematic network "Las literaturas infantiles y juveniles del marco ibérico" (RED LIJMI). She was part of the research team for the Gulbenkian–Casa da Leitura Project and collaborated on the research projects "Living Among Books" (Erasmus+) and "Short Poetic Genres and Linguistic and Literary Education" at InED-ESE, Porto. She has delivered lectures and presented papers at national and international colloquia and conferences. She is the author of several books, book chapters, and articles in scholarly journals, and has supervised doctoral and master's theses in the field of children's literature.

Margaret Anne Suggs is an illustrator, author, and lecturer. Her pop-up work Home Is Where the Heart Is, which narrates her immigrant experience through a series of birdhouses, has been exhibited across Ireland. Her book The Dandelion's Tale – An Allegory of Migration (Graffeg) was nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal in Illustration. Illustrations from her next book, Robin and Pip (Graffeg), were selected for the Golden Pen of Belgrade Exhibition. Her work reflects themes of migration, identity, belonging, friendship, and nature. Her other books include The Moth & The Moon (Beehive Books) and the best-selling Pigín of Howth, written by Kathleen Watkins and illustrated by Suggs (Gill Books). She is a former Director and current member of Illustrators Ireland and has served as Administrator of the Silent Book Collections for IBBY Ireland since 2021. She chaired the International Jury at the 2023 Bratislava Illustration Biennial and served on the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award Jury. An archive of her illustration work is held in the National Library of Ireland.

Jochen Weber has more than thirty years of professional experience in international children's literature, with particular knowledge of children's literature from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal. He heads the language section at the International Youth Library in Munich. His expertise encompasses evaluating and reviewing books, editing book recommendation catalogues, developing and organising book and illustration exhibitions, moderating events with authors, illustrators, and children's book experts, writing articles, and conducting workshops. He also works as a freelance translator of children's literature from Spanish into German.