Vietnam has put forward two names for the world's most prestigious prize in children's literature — and for the first time in seven decades, it's doing so in both categories at once.
Author Nguyễn Hữu Quỳnh Hương and illustrator Tạ Huy Long will represent the country at the 2028 Hans Christian Andersen Award, chosen by Vietnam's national section of IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People). It's a milestone for a publishing scene that has rarely had this kind of international spotlight.
Hương is the more cerebral of the two nominees: a writer and researcher who folds big, uncomfortable topics — climate migration, human displacement, even death — into picture books for young readers, always anchored in Vietnamese folklore and culture. Her book Dạo Bước Với Thời Gian (Walking with Time) earned a place in The White Ravens 2025, the annual selection catalogue from the International Youth Library in Munich. Other titles include a story of climate migration, Chạy Mưa Chạy Nắng, and the bluntly titled Thư Gửi Thần Chết (Dear Death).
Long, meanwhile, has built a reputation on drawing Vietnam's history for kids. His graphic novel Yersin – Khúc Hát Cá Ông (The Whale Song), published in 2025, packs in more than 200 images and marks his shift from illustrator to full visual storyteller. His backlist — Lược Sử Nước Việt Bằng Tranh (Vietnam: A Brief History in Pictures) and adaptations of classic legends like Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái — has become a gateway for young Vietnamese readers into the country's own mythology.
The timeline stretches out: national nominations are announced in January 2027, a shortlist follows in January 2028, winners are revealed at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy that April, and the award ceremony lands at the IBBY World Congress in Barcelona in August 2028.
For travellers, this is a nice hook for a culture-first trip to Vietnam. Independent bookshops in Hanoi's Old Quarter and Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 stock illustrated Vietnamese titles — many with striking cover art worth a suitcase slot even if you can't read the words. If your timing lines up with Bologna or Barcelona in 2028, you might catch Vietnam's moment on the world children's literature stage. And if the news makes you curious about Vietnamese storytelling traditions, the Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái legends Long illustrates are the country's answer to Grimm: strange tales of dragons, lake spirits and founders of the nation.
Who's it for? Book-loving travellers, families planning a Vietnam trip who want authentic local stories for the kids, and anyone who enjoys watching a national literary scene break onto the international stage.
