Winnipeg-born author/illustrator Jon Klassen wins $749K Swedish literary prize

Canadian picture book author-illustrator Jon Klassen has won the 2026 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, presented annually by the Swedish Arts Council and considered one of the richest literary prizes in the world.

The award — named after the late Swedish children’s author and is presented to “a person or organisation for their outstanding contribution to children’s and young adult literature” — is worth five million Swedish krona, or roughly $749,000.

Klassen was born in Winnipeg, grew up in Niagara Falls, Ont. and now lives in L.A., and is the bestselling author/illustrator of I Want My Hat Back, This Is Not My Hat, The Skull, The Rock From the Sky and others. He has previously won the Caldecott and Kate Greenaway medals, and in 2018 was appointed to the Order of Canada.

The Swedish-based administrators of the prize and organizers of Italy’s Bologna Children’s Book Fair announced Klassen as the winner of the prize on April 14. Klassen will receive the award from Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden at a ceremony in Stockholm on May 25.