MILAN (AP) — Chinese author Cao Wenxuan and German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner have been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize for children's literature.

The biennial awards were announced this week during the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Cao is the first Chinese writer to be shortlisted for the prize, considered the most prestigious children's book award, while Berner has been nominated many times for her body of work.

Cao says he has got all his inspiration from Chinese society, which "has provided me with so many lively and unique stories which are pretty novel to kids elsewhere." Berner is well-known for her series of picture books showing richly detailed, everyday scenes.

First awarded in 1956, the Hans Christian Andersen Prize is often known as the Nobel Prize for children's literature.