Author David A. Robertson and illustrator Josée Bisaillon have been nominated for the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Awards.
Known as the “little Nobel,” the biennial awards were established in 1956 to “recognize authors and illustrators around the world whose complete works have made a lasting and significant contribution to children’s literature.”
Each of the 80 national sections of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) nominates candidates for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards. This year, Robertson and Bisaillon are IBBY Canada’s nominees.
Winnipeg-based Robertson has won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature — Illustrated Books for both When We Were Alone and On the Trapline.
“Robertson’s legacy promises to extend well into the future,” Lesley Clement, chair of IBBY Canada’s HCA Award Nomination Committee, said in a press release. “As Cherie Dimaline observes in her essay for the award nomination dossier, ‘Robertson has already changed the world for the next generation of readers, not just the literary world or the landscape of available books, but an entire outlook on life and imagining of what is possible.’”
Bisaillon, who is based in Montreal, has illustrated more than 35 picture books for children. She won the Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award for The Snow Knows with author Jennifer McGrath. Bisaillon has been named a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Young People’s Literature — Illustrated Books on three separate occasions.
“I remember very well Josee’s fervent passion for illustration and her desire to create images that would be very personal to her […],” Pol Turgeon, a renowned Quebec teacher, illustrator, and artist, wrote in her endorsement. “Watching her work is an exercise in humility and curiosity. Seeing the reach of her work from the personal to the international is both inspiring and highly commendable.”
An international jury of distinguished children’s literature specialists selects the winners, which are evaluated on “qualities of their work including aesthetic and literary merit, the ability to stretch children’s curiosity and imagination, diversity of expression, and the continued relevance of the works to children and young people.”
The awards will be presented at the 40th IBBY World Congress to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, August 6–9, 2026.
l to r: David A. Robertson (Credit: Amber Green) and Josée Bisaillon (Photo credit: Julie Artacho)