Salman Rushdie, author of “Midnight’s Children,” has been announced winner of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Litteraturpris, an award given every two years to writers recognized for sharing Andersen’s “love of the narrative art of the fairytale.”
Given since 2010 and backdated to include the 2007 award given to Paulo Coelho that inspired the HCAL’s formation, it counts among its previous recipients “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling in 2010 and Isabel Allende (“City of the Beasts,” “The Island Beneath the Sea”) most recently.
“Sir Salman Rushdie receives this award due to the fact that he is an incomparable author, who through a blend of global realism and fairytale fantasy depicts the significance of journeys and cultural meetings for our time,” read the HCAL’s statement.
The award’s prize fund stands at 50,000 Danish krone ($9,000), making it Denmark’s biggest literature prize, though half of the kr1,000,000 Sonning Prize, which is a more general arts prize with European scope, named after fellow Danish author Carl Johan Sonning.
Though the award has been announced now, the ceremony itself is not to take place until August 17, 2014, coinciding with the H.C. Andersen Festivals in Odense.
Rowling and Rushdie have both received honors from the Queen of England, an OBE and Knighthood respectively.Rushdie and Allende have also been admitted to the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.
