Eva Lindström – laureate 2022 1
Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award “It’s important fo
r everyone – not just adults – to be able to access worlds we might never encounter any other way” When did you know that you wanted to be a writer and illustrator of picture books? – I probably knew by the early or mid1980s, after I had done my first book. I started my career drawing comic strips for Swedish magazines, Kvinnotidningen Q and Arbetaren. But then I switched to picture books. Picture books let me make bigger pictures and work in colour, but the texts were still supposed to be short. It was a good fit for me. What were you like as a child? – I wanted to have things my way. 10 Tell us about your creative process. Do you plan the story before you start to draw, or are you surprised by what comes out of your brush? – I don’t plan anything; I just sit down and start to draw or write. Sometimes I’m sketching and drawing at the same time. Sometimes I write the words first and only then do I start working on the illustrations. Then, when I paint the pictures, I almost always have to change the words. The pictures take over and make certain words completely superfluous.