Canadian-Hungarian-Japanese writer Csilla Istok has won the 2013 Rainbow Caterpillar Multilingual Kid Lit Award last week for her Hungarian-language short story “When the Sun Dies.”
The prize is open to unpublished short stories by a Canadian writer in a language other than English. It was founded in 2011 by Happie Testa and Hanoosh Abbasi, co-owners of the Toronto-based multilingual children’s bookshop Rainbow Caterpillar, with an aim to support the preservation in Canada of mother languages.
We hope this award also encourages parents to pass their mother language on to their children raised in Canada, Abbasi said in a statement.
The winning story was selected by Annick Press co-founder Anne Millyard, journalist and children’s book author Catherine Rondina, and Calgary Public Library librarian Jean Ludlam. The award received submissions in eight languages, with three finalists selected by a panel of 10 language experts.
Finalists:
“Blackie and the Glacier” by Sergo Akchurin (Russian)
“Virginia and the Forgotten Teacup” by Viviana Laperchia (Italian)
Honourable mentions:
“Flowers in My Shoes” by Ahmad Marouf (Arabic)
“The Wonderful Furoshiki” by Mari Okumura (Japanese)