Nicolas Lunabba Awarded Gothenburg Book Fair’s Cultural Education Award 2026

Nicolas Lunabba, author of the bestselling Will You Care If I Die?, has been awarded Gothenburg Book Fair’s Cultural Education Award. The award is presented annually to a person, organisation or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to promoting  education in Sweden. The motivation reads as follows:

“With a rare ability to combine the personal and political, [Lunabba] has become one of the most important voices in our time’s conversations about language, community and social justice. As an author, he creates space for experiences rarely portrayed in literature, and he writes with a presence, warmth and indignation that makes it difficult to look away. His books have opened a lot of people’s eyes to the consequences of segregation, but also to people’s capacity for resistance and change. Care and education are closely intertwined throughout his entire life’s work. For twenty years, through [the organization] Helamalmö, he has created spaces where children and teenagers in vulnerable areas can meet literature and one another Libraries, homework support and book-talks become parts of an educational continuum that gives people access to knowledge and language in their everyday life. Thank you for showing us that education is a joint effort.”

Lunabba accepted the award on Wednesday, September 23rd, at Gothenburg Book Fair.