HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese translator Trần Thị Minh Tâm has won this year’s global Hans Christian Andersen Award, the award committee announced yesterday.

She becomes the first Vietnamese person to receive the award.

The official award ceremony will take place on April 3, in the Danish poet’s native town of Odense.

Tâm was honoured for her success in popularising Andersen in Việt Nam. In Denmark, people don’t understand why his fairytales are so popular in faraway countries like Việt Nam.

Millions of schoolchildren in Việt Nam know the Danish poet well, thanks to Tâm. Her work with Andersen has stretched over almost 20 years and resulted in a fairytale edition published in 2003 with 88 fairytales at first and later 100 fairytales. These collections have since been published in 16 different iterations and another version is coming this year.

Tâm’s work means that schools nationwide have been able to work with Andersen – and not just read his fairytales but also use them as an inspiration when working with visual arts, music and drama.

Besides Tâm, the other award-winners are Dr Phil Klaus Müller-Wille (Switzerland) for his studies on the aesthetics of Andersen and singer/composer Sebastian (Denmark) for his interpretations of Andersen for the Danish musical scene.

The Hans Christian Andersen Award is presented annually in recognition of outstanding achievements in working with Andersen and of contributions to promoting and spreading further knowledge of the Danish national poet in many parts of the world.

Since 1996 the Hans Christian Andersen Award Committee has presented its Honourary Award to 44 different organisations and individuals from 12 different countries. — VNS