2020

María Cristina Ramos was born in 1952 in San Rafael, Mendoza. At the age of 23, she won the Leopoldo Marechal first prize in the region of Cuyo for a selection of poems. Three years later, she moved to Neuquén, in Patagonia where she completed a teaching degree in literature. Her first book for children was the collection of poems, Un sol para tu sombrero (A sun for your hat, 1988) followed by the short stories, Las lagartis no vuelan (Lizards can’t fly, 1990) and Coronas y galeras (Crowns and top-hats, 1991), both of which were recognized at the Antoniorrobles Latin American Awards, organised by IBBY México. In 1997, De barrio somos (Our neighbourhood) was shortlisted for the Fundalectura award and Ruedamares, pirate de la mar bravia (Ruedamares, a pirate of the raging sea) was published. Her novel Mientras duermen las piedras (While the stones sleep) was shortlisted for the International Anaya Award in 2006. She has been a trainer in reading programmes both nationally and regionally since 1983 and since 2017 has run Lecturas y navegantes (Reading and navigators), a training programme for the promotion of reading literature in public schools in Patagonia, sponsored by Fundación SM. Since 2002, she has run the publishing house Ruedamares. In 2016 she received the Premio Iberoamericano SM de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil. The jury commended “her craftsmanship and her profound respect for her readers, characters, and the reality she recreates, her genuine and independent authorial voice, and the subtle incorporation of values and cultural practices of indigenous people”.

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Nouneh Sarkissian’s early education was in Yerevan in Armenian and Russian as well as English. She was involved in acting, music and began to write stories and rhymes as part of the school literary circle. She entered the department of Romano-Germanic languages at the Yerevan State University and studied medieval manuscripts at the Research Institute of Ancient Manuscripts in Yerevan. In 1991 she moved to the UK where she completed an MA at Goldsmiths’ College in the History of Art. Her studies in Armenian folklore, literature and art led to projects for the Armenian diaspora and for the Armenian Embassy in London. She is the author of over 16 books for children in Armenian, English, Russian and Ukrainian, some of which have been translated into the various dialects of Armenia. Some of her fairy tales, including The bald Hedgehog and Jerome the Gnome, have been adapted as puppet shows and presented at the Hovahannes Toumanian Puppet Theatre and the State Marionette Theatre in Yerevan.

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Libby Gleeson was born in 1950 in Young, a small town in New South Wales. The third of six children, her family moved frequently for her father’s teaching work. With limited funds and no television, libraries, books and reading where important parts of her young life. She studied history at the University of Sydney graduating in 1973. In 1976 she went abroad to travel and work, initially based in Italy and then in London, where she began her first novel Eleanor, Elizabeth (1984). She returned to Sydney in 1980 and began teaching at the University of New South Wales. Since 1990 she has been a full time writer, writing more that thirty books, picture books and novels for young and older readers as well as writing for television programmes. She has collaborated with some of the finest illustrators, such as Armin Greder and Freya Blackwood. In her fiction for young adults she emphasizes strong female characters and issues of social justice. She has won several awards for her work including the 1992 Winner Prime Minister’s Multicultural Award for Big Dog, the 2000 Bologna Ragazzi Award for The Great Bear, and the 2002 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Award for An Ordinary Day (all illustrated by Armin Greder) as well as the 2013 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Red (2012). As recognition for her contribution to literature she was appointed a member of the Order of Australia in 2007. She was given the Dromkeen Medal in 2011 and the Nan Chauncy Award for contributions to Australian children’s literature in 2015. 

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Renate Welsh was born in Vienna in 1937. She began inventing stories early in her life, in part to deal with the early death of her mother and the experience of living through the Second World War. In 1955 she began university studies in Vienna in English, Spanish and Political Science but stopped her studies in 1962 after marrying and began to work as a translator for the British Council in Vienna. She wrote her first book, Der Enkel des Löwenjägers (The lion hunter’s grandson, 1969) during an extended hospital stay in 1968. Shortly thereafter she became a full-time writer and has since published over fifty books. She has won the Österischer Staatspreis für Kinder und Jugendliteratur many times. Her book, Johanna (1979), the story of an illegitimate child growing up in the early 1930s in Austria, a period of political instability, unemployment and poverty, won the Kinder und Jugendbuchpreis der Stadt Wien as well as the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1980. Her books have been selected twice for the IBBY Honour List: in 2004 for Dieda oder das fremde Kind (That girl or the strange child, 2002) and in 2010 for … und raus bist du (… and you are out, 2008). Other well-known works include Besuch aus der Vergangenheit (Visit from the past, 1999), Dr. Chickensoup (2011) and Sarah spinnt Geschichten (Sarah tells stories, 2014). Renate Welsh focuses on children’s social reality, the reality of modern childhood and youth. Family crisis and social injustice, illnesses, social exclusion, violence, isolation and identity conflicts are depicted with remarkable honesty. Her books are highly regarded in the German-speaking world and have been translated into several European languages. She has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times and was a Finalist in 2014.    

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Gasham Isabayli was born 1948 in the Kahlsa village of the Kurdamir District. His first book, Balaja-bapbalaja (Little, very little), an anthology of poems, was published in 1982. Since then he has published about 40 books, including Jinn (1993) based on tales of Azerbaijani folklore and Lessons of Hunger (2014), which was published in English and Russian. His works have been translated into Russian, English, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Kirgiz and Turkish. His poetry appeared in the Russian magazine Murzilka in 1987 and in Bookbird in 2012 and Jinn, was included in the 2014 IBBY Honour List. In 2015, his book of poems, stories and tales The Revenge of the Stork won the Golden Word prize of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. His poems and prose are valued for the way they vividly convey Azerbaijani landscape and culture.

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Bart Moeyaert began writing at ten years old. He attended the Arts Academy in Ghent and then studied Dutch, German, and History in Brussels. By the age of 19 he had published his first book Duet met valse noten (Duet out of tune, 1983), which is now a Belgian classic and has been adapted into a play and a musical. He has written in almost every literary genre: novels, short stories, picture books, books for early readers, poetry, theatre, audio books, song texts, essays and articles. In all of them he evokes an atmosphere in a subtle and poetic way: communication is rarely straightforward in his works and characters open up only gradually. His stories combine humour and seriousness. His best known works include Blote handen (Bare hands, 1995), which won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis, Broere (Brothers, 2000), De schepping (The Creation, 2003), De melkweg (The milky way, 2011) and Jij en ik en alle andere kinderen (You and me and all the other children, 2013), which is a festive illustrated collection of stories and poems for children. Bart Moeyaert’s works have been widely translated and he has translated works from well-known authors in German, French and English into Dutch. In 2007, he was awarded an honorary degree by the University of Antwerp and won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2019. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award five times and was a Finalist in 2002 and 2012.

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Marina Colasanti was born in 1937 in Asmara (then Abyssinia, now Eritrea). She moved to Brazil at the age of eleven, after having lived in Libya and Italy. She studied painting and etching at the National School of Arts but began working as a writer and journalist for a major Brazilian newspaper. She had already published two books of fiction and was editor of the children’s section of the newspaper when she published her first book for children and young people, Uma idea toda azul (A true blue idea, 1979). Uma idea toda azul, a series of innovative fairy tales with her own illustrations, received many awards and was published in several Latin American countries as well as in Spain and France. Depth in content and rich poetic language are trademarks of her literary works for children and young people and of her more than 100 fairy tales. Her most important titles for children include Ana Z. aonde vai você? (Ana Z. Where are you going?, 1993) and Longe como o meu querer (Far like my dear one, 1997), both of which include her own illustrations, as well as A moça tecelã (The girl weaver, 2004) and Breve história de um pequeno amor (Brief story about a little love, 2013). Several of these books have won major literary awards in Brazil including the Origenes Lessa Award– Best Fiction for Young People and the Jabuti Award. She has also received recognition as a translator: her Portuguese translation of María Theresa Andruetto’s Stefano (2014) was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List. Marina Colasanti was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016 and 2018. 

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Deborah Ellis was born in 1960 in Cochrane, Ontario. She began writing at an early age and first became involved in anti-war activism as a 17-year-old. She is now a social justice activist and feminist who writes in various genres, including contemporary realistic fiction, historical fiction, short stories, essays, and nonfiction. She first came to popularity and critical acclaim after her 1999 debut novel, Looking for X, won the Governor General’s Children’s Literature Award in 2000. Set in a low-income Toronto housing project, this novel deals with the plight of impoverished and homeless individuals. Deborah Ellis has also travelled to many war-torn countries and met countless refugees. It was an interview with a refugee mother that inspired Ellis to write The Breadwinner (2000), which explores life under the Taliban thorough the eyes of eleven-year-old girl Parvana. The Breadwinner was published in twenty-five languages and was followed by Parvana’s Journey (2002) and Mud City (2003) and later, My Name is Parvana (2015). The Breadwinner was made into a highly regarded animated film in 2017 and a graphic novel in 2018. Later books have been set in Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel, Malawi, Zambia and Bolivia. She has also written non-fiction, such as Looks Like Daylight (2013) a series of interviews with indigenous youth in North America. Her books have won numerous awards, including the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award in 2003. She is an active and accomplished public speaker and she has been honoured with the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada. 

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Huang Beijia was born in Rugao, an ancient city in China’s Jiangsu Province. Her parents were teachers and her school had a library so she became an avid reader from a young age. She was admitted to Beijing University in 1977 to study Chinese literature and began to write, beginning with the short stories When Reed Boats Float (1983) and Small Boats (1981). She became a professional writer in 1984 and joined the Creative Youth Team, a group of high-spirited and ambitious young authors. During this time she wrote short stories, novels, essays, and articles for adult readers as well as screenplays for films and television. The experience of her daughter competing for a place in middle school, prompted her to write the long novel I Will Be a Good Child in 1996. She wrote several books in rapid succession, including I’m a Flag Raiser Today (1999) and A Kiss for Mom (2007), which together with I Will Be a Good Child, have won numerous awards in China and been accepted in the list of required books drawn up by educational departments. She has written for many genres of children’s literature: novels, short stories, essays, and a compilation of fairy tales as well as picture books. Huang Beijia is a lecturer in schools and consultant to children’s magazines and research institutions as well as a juror for many book prizes. She has lived for short periods in the UK, Hong Kong, Australia and Spain and has travelled widely for speeches, conferences and book fairs. 

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Anna Kalogirou-Pavlou was born in Kyrenia in 1940 and grew up in nearby Lapithos on the northern coast of Cyprus. She worked as a teacher for many years at various elementary schools in Cyprus. She published her first book in 1991 and has since published 25 books for children and young adults, including six historical novels that have been included in anthologies of Cyprus literature for elementary education. She draws her themes from the everyday life of children, folklore and history of Greece and Cyprus. The main characters in her books are usually children with a wise grandparent who answers the children’s questions and guides them and imparts basic life values. Her books have received prizes within Cyprus and Greece and Geusi apo Neratzi (A taste of bitter orange, 1998) was included in the 2000 IBBY Honour List. She has participated in many conferences on children’s literature in Greece and has collaborated with the committee of the Cyprus Teachers’ Association for the children’s magazine Paidiki Hara as well as with the children’s pages of the local newspaper Phileleftheros in Cyprus.

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Louis Jensen was born 1943 in Nibe by Limfjorden in northern Jutland. When he was twelve years old, the family moved south and away from the sea. However, the fjord and the screams of the thousands of birds are always present in his books. He worked as an architect and city planner for the city of Århus, but is now a fulltime writer. He began by writing poetry and books for adults and his first collection of poems was published in 1973. Ten years later, his debut for children was a short story, The Insect Man for the anthology Fantastic Tales. His first children’s novel was Krystalmanden (The crystal man) in 1986. In the best Andersen tradition he writes fairy tales that are indeed fantastic: about love and compassion, but also about the essence of evil. He has published nine collections of Hundrede firkantede historier (Hundred square stories, 1992-2014), though he says there are 1001 stories in his head. His stories have been published in several anthologies in Denmark and translated into English, German and Spanish.  His most famous novel, Skelettel på hjul (The skeleton on wheels, 1992) the story of a boy’s search for the soul of his murdered dog, was originally a play.  Other works include Den frygtelige hand (The terrible hand, 2001), 2 kroner og 25 øre (2 crowns and 25 ore, 2011) and Rejsen til Gud (The journey to God, 2011). Louis Jensen has received all Danish awards for literature for young people and in 2002 received recognition for his lifetime contribution from the Danish Art Foundation. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times and was selected as a Finalist in 2016. 

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Marie-Aude Murail was born 1954 in Le Havre into a family of artists: her father is a poet, her mother a journalist, her brother is a composer, another brother and her sister are writers for children. She studied literature at the Sorbonne University where her doctoral thesis was about the adaptation of classic novels for young readers. At 23 she started writing romances for women’s magazines and eight years later she published her first novel for adults. She began writing tales, stories and novels published in the magazines of the Bayard Group, including Astrapi, J'aime Lire and Je Bouquine. In 1987, her first children’s novel, Mystère (Mystery), was published and from then on she devoted herself to writing for children and young people. Marie-Aude Murail has a gift for creating characters that have a special bond with the reader. Her novels explore various themes of politics, history, love, adventure and fantasy and have been translated into more than 22 languages. She has been awarded most French prizes in the field of children’s books and she was selected for the 2010 IBBY Honour List for the story Miss Charity (2008). She has been nominated several times for the Hans Christian Andersen Award: in 2018 she was a Finalist and her book, Simple (2004) was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work. In 2004, she was made “Knight of the Legion of Honour” - the highest French order for military and civil merit - in recognition for her work in the field of children’s literature. In parallel with her writing, she is an activist for literacy and the development of children’s reading skills as well as the rights of refugee and migrant children.    

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Mirjam Pressler was born in 1940 in Darmstadt and died in January 2019 in Landshut. She was an illegitimate child and grew up in the care of foster parents as well as in an orphanage. Reading became a sanctuary during her difficult childhood. After finishing school, she studied painting and languages in Frankfurt and Munich. Later, as single mother of three daughters, she took a variety of jobs to support her family. In 1979, at the age of 39, she decided to supplement her income by writing. Her debut young adult novel, Bitterschokolade (Bitter chocolate, 1940), was awarded the Oldenburg Youth Literature prize. Since then she has written over fifty books for children and young adults, many of which are considered modern classics. Her stories for children and young adults include Wenn das Glück kommt, muss man ihm einen Stuhl hinstellen (When happiness arrives, you need to offer it a chair, 1994), which won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis and Malka Mai (2001), which was included in the 2004 IBBY Honour List and in the recommended books of the 2018 Andersen Jury. She has written on the themes of Jewish childhoods Ich sehne mich so … die Lebensgeschichte der Anne Frank (Anne Frank: a hidden life, 1992) and religious intolerance, Nathan und seine Kinder (Nathan and his children, 2009). Mirjam Pressler was also an accomplished translator, translating more than 200 works from Hebrew, Dutch, Flemish, Afrikaans and English. For her work she has won numerous awards, among them the Sonderpreis der Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for her complete work both as author (2010) and translator (1994) as well as a German Order of Merit. She was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times and was a Finalist in 2014 and 2016. 

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Maria Papayanni was born in 1964 in Larissa into a large family where everyone had the gift of telling stories. She studied Greek language and literature and worked as a journalist in radio, television, newspapers and magazines. When her first book was published in 2001, she left journalism and devoted herself to writing. She loves magical, traditional tales and narrates them to children when she visits schools. She also loves theatre and has penned librettos and verses for musical theatre. Her books (eight novels, ten picture books, ten early readers, two books with CDs) have enjoyed great success with children and have won numerous awards in Greece. The picture book, Eiche ap’ola kai eiche polla (He had it all and had a lot, 2015) was included in the 2016 White Ravens. She believes that books have wings: children know well that when the sentence “once upon a time” is uttered the door opens to the place where anything may happen. And children need the world of imagination in order to understand everyday life and its difficulties. But, like everything else, imagination needs training.

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Veronika Marék was born in Budapest in 1937. An early interest in reading and drawing led to a love for theatre, specifically puppets. She was accepted into the State Puppet Theatre and graduated as a puppet actor while studying literature at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. She drew her first book for children A Bem téri gyerekek (Kids from the Bem Square) at 17 and in 1963 decided to focus on writing and drawing. An early favourite, Laci és az oroszlán (Tommy and the lion, 1961) was translated into Japanese and most of her later books have been published in Hungarian and Japanese. She has been the freelance author of two magazines for children, created successful board games, written comics, riddles, stories, puppet plays and musicals as well as radio plays and scripts for TV series. She has also created puppet plays and musicals and her books have also been adapted for the stage. She has won many awards in Hungary, including the Budapest Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2018. 

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Farhad Hassanzadeh has had an influential presence on children’s and young adult literature in Iran in the past quarter century. Through his novels, stories, rewritings of old tales, poems, biographies, and journalistic essays, he has been able to encourage a broad spectrum of audiences in various age groups to read literary works. He was born in 1962 in Abadan, a town in the south of Iran by the side of the Arvand River on the Iran-Iraq border. During the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, Abadan was in the war zone and many of its citizens had to abandon the town. After leaving Abadan and doing many jobs, he was finally able to engage in his chosen career of creative writing. His diverse experiences have enabled him to create a broad spectrum of characters, circumstances and locations and he writes for various age groups. He has written about the effects of war on civilians, migration and vagrancy, teenage love, children in shantytowns, marginalized or fringe characters and social taboos. He has created over eighty works and won more than thirty national awards. His best known works include the short story collection Kenare Daryache Nimkate Haftom (The seventh bench on the lake, 2006), the young adult novels Mehmane Mahtab (The moon’s guest, 2008), Aghrabhaye Keshtiye Bambak (Bambak’s scorpions, 2009-2016) and Hasti (Hasti, 2010) as well as the children’s book Ghesehaye Kooti Kooti (Kooti tales, 2014). His stories have been being adapted into films and plays. He received the Art Medal of the First Degree from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance for creating lasting characters in children’s and young adult literature. Farhad Hassanzadeh was a Finalist for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and his book, Ziba Sedayam (Call me Ziba, 2015) was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work. 

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Siobhán Parkinson was born in 1954, she grew up in various parts of Ireland and has settled in Dublin. She studied English and German at Trinity College in Dublin and eventually completed a PhD in 1982 on the poetry of Dylan Thomas. She has worked in academic and educational publishing, in an organisation supporting homeless people and in various commercial publishing companies as a writer and editor. She was co-editor of Bookbird and co-editor of Inis, the Children’s Books Ireland magazine. She is also a translator of children’s books, from German to English, and founded Little Island Books, a children’s publishing company, in 2010. She made her debut as an author in 1995 with a picture book for young children entitled All Shining in the Spring. A forthright yet gentle account of the death of a new baby at birth, it signalled what has become a hallmark of her fiction – her ability to handle serious themes with an exquisite lightness of touch and deep respect for the emotional intelligence of young people. She has written over twenty-five books, ranging from young adult novels to stories for younger readers, including historical novels such as Amelia (1993), No Peace for Amelia (1994) and Kate (2006) and contemporary realist fiction dealing with themes of homelessness, as in Breaking the Wishbone (1999) domestic violence and family break-up as in The Moon King (1999) and Bruised (2011) or the plight of asylum seekers in The Love Bean (2002). Her books have won the Children’s Books Ireland/Bisto Awards several times and have been selected for the White Ravens for No Peace for Amelia, Four Kids Three Cats Two Cows One Witch (Maybe) (1997) and Kate. The Moon King and Something Invisible (2006) were selected as IBBY Honour Books in 2000 and 2008, respectively. Parkinson served as Ireland’s first Laureate na nÓg (Children’s Laureate) from 2010 to 2012. 

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David Grossman (born in Jerusalem in 1954) is a major figure in contemporary Hebrew literature, writing for both adult and young readers. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and has been presented with numerous awards, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Artes et des Lettres, Prix Medicis, the Peace Prize of the German Booksellers Association and most recently the 2017 Man Booker International Prize. He is the author of ten internationally acclaimed novels, three works of non-fiction and a short story collection, as well as many children's books, a children's opera and a play. In his literary and journalistic writing, David Grossman does not shy away from complicated and controversial issues. In his writing for young adults Grossman has dealt with less common topics for children such as the relationship between a boy and a lonely old man and the spirited lives of individuals in a nursing home in Duel (1982); growing up without a mother and dark family secrets in The Zigzag Kid (1994); drug addiction and runaway teens in Someone to Run With (2000). Grossman’s picture books in particular are considered canonical in Israeli children’s literature and are beloved by several generations. His characters are household favourites and his stories feature warm family dynamics and a mix of fantasy and daily life, such as animals in a painting coming to life or a meeting between a boy and a rabbit turning into an understanding of how the other is really a friend. His picture book Chibuk (2011) was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. He was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and his story, Duel, was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work. 

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Roberto Piumini was born in 1947 in Edolo in the province of Bresica. He studied Pedagogy at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and taught literature for six years before becoming an actor and puppeteer for three years. In 1978 he started his long and rich literary career, writing children's poems, nursery rhymes, fairy tales, stories, novels and plays, as well as song texts, texts for musical theatre and translations. He has recorded audio books of epic poems and tales by himself and of other authors. He has written and hosted Radicchio and Il Mattino di Zucchero radio programme and still writes texts for music, in cooperation with Italian and foreign musicians. He is known for his ability to create interesting, funny and simple stories (both in prose and in poetry), which are based on a fantastic link of words, gestures and sound. His best known books include: Storie dell’orizzonte (Horizon stories), which won the Italian Il Premio Andersen in 1983 and the Premio Le Palme d’oro in 1984; Lo stralisco (I take it off, 1990), Motu-iti (Small scale, 1993) and Mattia e il nonno (Mattia and Grandpa, 1993).  

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Yoko Tomiyasu was born in 1959 in Tokyo. She studied the literature of the Heian period (the Japanese era from the eighth to twelfth century). She began writing in high school and while in university was encouraged to publish two of her early short stories, Mogaribue (Flute that fells a tiger) and Nanoko-sensei (Nanoko the teacher), in a monthly children’s magazine in 1979. Her first book Kutsu nannte iranai (I don’t need shoes) was published in 1984, followed by Yamanba yama no mokko-tachi (Mokko in Mount Yamamba, 1986), a revised version of this story was included in the 2002 IBBY Honour List. Her best-known early work, Kunugi-bayashi no zawazawa-so (Noisy house of chestnut woods) was published in 1990 and combines folklore and folk beliefs with an amusing modern-day main character. Several of her books have become successful series, including the series that began with Mujina tantei-kyoku – meitanteei tojo! (Mujina detective agency – a great detective!, 1999). She has also written picture books such as Mayo to oni (Maya and the ogre: a story of a witch’s daughter, 2004) and the fantasy chapter book, Bon manekini (Invitation to the summer festival of Bon, 2011) that received many awards. Her special interest in traditional folklore has shaped many of the characters in her writing for children, which is both humorous and magical. In her later work, especially Bon manekini, she also uses fantasy, ghosts and fabled creatures from the past to question modern urbanisation and destruction of nature.

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Taghreed Najjar was born in 1951. She studied at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon and completed a degree in English with a diploma in Education and minor in Psychology. She taught for many years and began writing in the mid-seventies when there was no established publishing industry for children’s books in Jordan. In 1996 she established the Al Salwa Publishing House that specialises in original Arabic content for children and young adults. Over the years she has written 70 books for a wide range of ages. Her work includes: picture books that have become classics, read and enjoyed by many generations; books for early readers, two of which have won awards; and inspiring novels for teens and young adults that address difficult subjects reflecting the realities of political and cultural conflicts in the region. Her books have been widely translated and several have won awards, including the Etisalat Book Award 2017 for her early reader book What happened to my brother Ramez? and the Kitabi Arab Thought Award 2013 for her picture book Grandma Nafeesa. Three of her books have been selected for the White Raven catalogue: the early reader book A Very Strange Adventure in 2017, the picture book Why Not? in 2014 and the picture book The Ghoul in 2000. 

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Lee Guemyi was born in Cheongwon, a rural town in Chungcgeongbuk-do in 1962 but grew up in Seoul. After graduating from high school, she chose a career as a writer instead of going to a college. In 1984, she made her debut as a writer when she was awarded a prize for the children’s story, Youngu and Heukku in the Saebut Literary Contest, and in 1985, she won the literary contest organized by the children’s magazine, Boys’ Choongang. In 1989 she moved back to her rural hometown, where she was confronted with economic hardship, social disintegration and environmental problems of Korean farming villages. This experience greatly influenced both the setting and themes of her children’s stories. In 1999 she returned to Seoul and committed her time to writing. Her first major work Yujin and Yujin (2004) was groundbreaking in many respects as it dealt with the issue of sexual assault and critical role of adults in the aftermath. Women’s life and issues, previously little explored in Korean literature for young adults, became a recurring theme, as in The Moment the Ice Sparkles (2013) which deals with teenage pregnancy and childbirth from both the girl’s and the boy’s perspective. Her most recent work of historical fiction, There, May I go? (2016) focuses on Korean modern history and the violence of war through the lives of two girls, Soo-nam and Chae-ryung, and addresses one of the biggest social issues from the time: the Japanese army’s use of comfort women during the Second World War. There, May I go? was included in the 2018 IBBY Honour List and in the same year she was named Writer of the Year.    

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Toon Tellegen was born in 1941 in Den Briel. The son of a doctor, he also studied medicine and combined a medical practice with writing for both adult and young readers. In 1970 he spent three years working in a hospital in Kenya where he also collected animal stories from the Masai. Animals feature in many of his now-classic works for children. His first collection of animal stories originated in the short stories he wrote every evening for his daughter. In Misschien wisten zij alles (Perhaps they knew everything, 1995) the stories are set in an impossible world where woods, meadows, sea, mountains and desert can all be found right next to each other. In this remarkable biotope, the most diverse species of animals are found and the laws of nature do not exist, everything is possible. The elephant has a special place in his work, as in the stories Jannes (Johnny, 1993) and Teunis (Tony, 1996). Toon Tellegan also has an affinity for letters and cakes as in the story collections, Brieven aan niemand anders (Letters to Anyone and Everyone, 1996) and Taartenboek (Book of Cakes, 2001). His work has been characterized as timeless and ageless in the sense that his poetry and prose appeals to children and adults. One of his books for adults, De trein
naar Pavlovsk en Oostvoorne (The train to Pavlovsk
and Oostvoorne, 2000), is about a boy who is told the most marvellous stories
about Russia by his grandfather. It contains the fairy tale Pikkuhenki, which he later adapted as a theatre play as well as the picture book Pikkuhenki (2005) with illustrations by Marit Törnqvist, which won awards for both the story and illustrations. Several of his books have won the Zilveren or Gouden Griffel and in 2006 he was a Finalist for the Hans Christian Andersen Award.  

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Joy Cowley was born as the eldest of five children in Levin in 1936. She initially struggled with reading and writing in school and when one of her own children had the same difficulties she began writing stories that appealed to him. Her first children’s stories were published in The School Journal, a publication distributed free to schools in New Zealand. She has written early-reader books that have become classics in New Zealand and subsequently spread all over the English-speaking world. She has said of her philosophy of books for new readers: Children learning to read need a real story that is interesting, entertaining, educationally and emotionally supportive, a story that is child-centred. Her two most famous characters are Greedy Cat (1983) and Mrs Wishy-Washy (1980). She has written books for emergent readers, picture books such as The Duck in the Gun (1984) and Snake and Lizard (2007), educational books such as The Red-Eyed Tree Frog (1999) as well as young adult fiction, Dunger (2013). Twists and turns of relationships feature in much of Joy Cowley’s writing as does her love of the New Zealand countryside, both feature in Dunger where she explores family relationships with wit, warm humour and wisdom. Joy Cowley has been actively involved in encouraging young writers through courses, seminars and workshops worldwide. She received the 1993 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal and her enormous contribution to children’s literature has been recognised with some of New Zealand’s highest honours, including the Order of New Zealand in 2017. She has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award twice and was a Finalist in 2018. Her picture book The Duck in the Gun was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.    

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Marcin Szczygielski (born 1972 in Warsaw) is a writer and graphic designer. He is the author of theatrical plays as well as novels for adults and young adults. He worked as art the director of Latarnik publishing house and his graphic art was published in several Polish monthlies. His fictional debut was the humorous adult novel PL-Boy in 2003 followed by several novels that established him as one of the most-read authors of popular literature in Poland. Starting with his first young adult novel, Omega (2009), magic, supernatural events and characters are at the crux of the secondary worlds in his novels. Important influences have been British fantasy fiction and the works of Lewis Carroll. His literary worlds are usually constructed around intensely experienced events: whether historical (Arka Czasu, Rafe and the ark of time, 2013), or contemporary (Omega), fantastic (Czarny Mlyn, The black mill, 2010) or realistic (Za niebieskimi drzwiami, Behind the blue door, 2010). These events affect the outside world and the protagonists’ perception of reality. They are connected with danger, risk, change and anomaly and bring about transformations after which the world can never be the same as before. His protagonists are, however, never passive and bravely face the challenges. Marcin Szczygielski has received over twenty awards and distinctions in Poland and abroad for his work. Four of his books have been distinguished in The Book of the Year Contest organized by the Polish Section of IBBY and Za niebieskimi drzwiami was selected for the 2012 IBBY Honour List. He was also awarded first prize in the last three (out of four) editions of the Astrid Lindgren competition organized by ABC XXI All of Poland Reads to Kids Foundation. Marcin Szczygielski was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award.    

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Grigory Oster was born in Odessa in 1947 and grew up in Yalta in the south of Crimea. Despite the suffocating political climate he was an avid reader and poet and lyricist before the age of eighteen. His first works were for adults and were printed and distributed in secret. He was drafted into the Soviet Navy and served three years in the northern city of Severomorsk, above the Arctic Circle. This experience reinforced his desire to write for children in the hopes of escaping the stifling censorship. His first book for children, The Joy of Giving (1975) was a collection of short stories that he adapted into a series of successful cartoons. He went on to write many more books, cartoons, and plays in the next decade
and a half. But his true literary fame came only after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, when privately owned publishers were at last able to release books
with no censorship. From then on, he rapidly became a household name. His writing has a playful irreverence where children are invited to question existing conventions, whether in language, relationships or social patterns. One of his most influential books, A Book of Bad Advice (1991) consists of humorous free verse poems “disguised” as deeply misguided dangerous
and harmful advice for children. This book created a genre of “bad advice” poems published in print and online. His 1992 book, Math Problems is a collection of satirical and sometimes absurd math problems for students, which can be “read in class without having to hide it from your teacher”. In addition to having published over 300 books for children, Grigory Oster has enjoyed success as a screenwriter and playwright. In 2007 he was awarded the title «Merited Artist of the Russian Federation» for his achievements in children's literature. 

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Peter Svetina was born in 1970 in Ljubljana. He studied Slovene Language and Literature at the University of Ljubljana, where he obtained a PhD in 2001 in early Slovenian Literature. Since 2007 he has been a lecturer at the University of Klagenfurt in Austria. He is an author of short stories, novels, picture books and poetry for children, young adults and adults. He also translates poetry and children’s literature from English, German, Croatian and Czech and works as an editor for poetry and literature textbooks. His writing includes both language play and real-life topics with a distinctive method of combining nonsense and realism. To date, he has published 20 books for children and young people. Three of his stories have been adapted for puppet shows and some poems and stories have also been translated into other languages. His children’s works include the picture book Klobuk gospoda Konstantina (Mr Constantine’s hat, 2007), winner of the Original Slovenian Picture Book Award in 2008; Modrost nilskih konjev  (Hippopotamus wisdom, 2010), which won a Golden Pear Award, given by Pionirska and the Ljubljana City Library, and was included in the 2011 White Ravens collection; as well as Kako je Jaromir iskal srečo  (How Jaromir sought happiness, 2010), Čudežni prstan (The magic ring, 2011), which was included in the 2013 White Ravens selection, Mrožek, mrožek (The little walrus, 2013) and the poetry collections Mimosvet  (By-world, 2001), Pesmi iz pralnega stroja (Poems from the washing machine, 2006) and Domače naloge (Home works, 2014). Ropotarna (The lumber room) received the Golden Pear Award and the Večernica Award in 2013 and was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List. Peter Svetina was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and Ropotarna was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.

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Jaco Jacobs was born in 1980 and grew up in a small Karoo town in South Africa. He wrote short stories in school and at 18 wrote his first youth novel Pretpark (Fun fair), which was published in 2003. He studied at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, and obtained a degree in Communication Science, as well as a degree in Afrikaans and Dutch Literature. After working as journalist and editor of the youth supplement at the daily newspaper Volksblad, he joined LAPA Publishers as children’s book publisher, where he worked for 13 years before becoming a full-time author. He has published more than 150 books for children and young people, including picture books, collections of children’s verse, and non-fiction. In addition to this, he has translated more than 250 children’s books into Afrikaans. He believes humour is one of the essential ingredients in an enjoyable children’s book, and his books, such as My ouma is ’n rock-ster (My granny is a rock star, 2004) and Wurms met tamatiesous (Worms in tomato sauce and other silly poems, 2005) are characterized by a strong element that engage young readers, as seen by his many ATKV Children’s Book Awards, an award which is voted by children. He was awarded the Alba Bouwer Prize, the MML Literature Award, the Elsabé Steenberg Prize, the Tienie Holloway Medal and the C.P. Hoogenhout Medal. The youth novel Suurlemoen! was included in the 2008 IBBY Honour List. Two of his novels for teenagers have been adapted into full-length feature films. His book, ‘n Goeie dag vir boomklim (A good day for climbing trees, 2015) was nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Award. 

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Jordi Sierra i Fabra was born in Barcelona in 1947. He wrote his first novel while in high school. He attended a technical school at night and worked during the day for a construction company until in his early 20s he began working as a music writer and radio programme producer. He worked for music magazines and in 1972 published his first book on the history of pop music. In 1981, he won the Gran Angular Young Peoples Literature Prize for El cazador (The hunter) and again in 1983, for … en un lugar llamado Tierra (… in a place called Earth) and in 1991 for El ultimo set (The last set). An extremely prolific writer, he has written over 400 works and sold over 12 million books and is the eighth most widely read author in Spanish schools. He has won over 30 literary prizes as well as multiple mentions on honour lists in Spain and abroad, including the White Ravens selection. His best known works include: Aydin (1994), Kafka y la muñeca viajera (Kafka and the travelling doll, 2006) and Las palabras heridas (Wounded words, 2017). His work Historia de un Segundo (History of a second) won the Barco de Vapor prize and was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. He has been nominated twice for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, in 2006 and 2012. In 2004, he created the Fundación Jordi Sierra i Fabra in Barcelona and the Fundación Taller de Letras Jordi Sierra i Fabra in Medellin to help young writers, which won the IBBY-Asahi Reading Promotion Award in 2010. 

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Annika Thor was born in 1950 and grew up in Gothenburg. She has been a librarian and an arts director, as well as a freelance writer in film, media and children’s culture. She also writes drama and film manuscripts and is now one of the most successful authors of books for children and young adults in Sweden. Her first book, En ö i havet (An island in the sea), published in 1996, was about two Jewish refugee sisters who come from Vienna to live on an island in the Gothenburg archipelago in the 1940s. It met with great critical acclaim and was nominated for the prestigious Augustpriset and won the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis in 1999. The book was followed by three others, a series that has been widely appreciated by both critics and readers alike in many countries. In her novel Om inte nu så när (If not now, when, 2011) she returns again to the time before and during World War II. She won the Augustpriset in 1997 for her book Sanning eller konsekvens (Truth or dare). Her first picture book Flickan från långt borta (The girl from far away, 2014) with illustrations by Maria Jönsson, is a beautiful book about different kinds of loneliness. In all she has published more than twenty books for children and adults of all ages, books that often portray people in dire situations, with psychological and existential conflicts, struggling to find a place in society.

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Born 1943 in Biel, Franz Hohler began studies in German and Romance languages at the University of Zurich in 1963. A storyteller since childhood, he left university to create a cabaret act that successfully toured Switzerland, Germany and Austria. A natural raconteur, he still performs cabaret while writing for both children and adults. His oeuvre includes novels, poetry, short stories, plays and songs. His first book, Tschipo  (1978), is now a classic and his books have been illustrated by some of the best-known illustrators in the German-speaking world, including Rotraut Susanne Berner, Wenn ich mir etwas wünschen könnte, (If I had a wish, 2000) and Kathrin Schärer, Es war einmal ein Igel (Once there was a hedgehog, 2011). Franz Hohler’s distinctive narrative style is fantastic-realist: the stories typically begin with a real life situation to which he adds a varied range of peculiar and surreal elements. His work has been described as playful, enigmatic, poetic, humorous, humane and radical. His collection of short stories, Das grosse Buch (The big book, 2009) are fairy tales that are not set in a castle, but in a supermarket and in other everyday places. Franz Hohler has received numerous awards, including the Oldenburger Kinder und Jugendbuchpreis for Tschipo in 1978. Tschipo und die Pinguine  (Tschipo and the penguin, 1985) was selected for the 1988 IBBY Honour List. In 1994 he received the Schweizerischer Jugendbuchpreis for Der Riese und die Erdbeerkonfitüre (The giant and the strawberry jam, 1993) and in 2013 he won the Solothurner Literaturpreis for his complete works. He was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016 and 2018 and Tschipo was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.    

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Ivan Andrusiak is a poet, author of books for children, critic and translator. He was born in 1968, in the village of Verbovets, in the Kosiv region of southern Ukraine. He studied at the V.S. Stefanyk Ivano-Frankivsk State Pedagogical Institute, the Ukrainian Academy of State Management and the University of North London. Since May 2014, he is the main editor of the publishing house Fontan Kazok that specializes in books for children. He has written books for young and older children, ranging from classic “forest stories”, where the world of animals is shown as human society, to realistic prose about inclusion for a small child in nursery school, or issues relevant for young adults. He has written collections of poems that are joking and lyrical, funny and joyful, including Chupakabra ta inshi Zaichyky : virshi : dlia simein (Chupakabra and other rabbits: poems: for reading in family circle, 2017). His stories combine features of tales and games and include witty songs, as in Khto boitsia Zaichykiv. (Who is afraid of rabbits?, 2010). His book Visim dniv iz žyttja Burunduka (Eight days in the life of a chipmunk, 2012) was included in the 2013 White Ravens catalogue.

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John Agard is a poet, playwright and short story writer. He was born in 1949 in Guyana and credits his passion for words to the childhood inspirations of the Latin Mass, calypso, and BBC radio cricket commentary. He began writing poetry in his teens and worked as a teacher, a librarian and a newspaper sub-editor and feature writer before arriving in Britain in 1977. In Britain he became a touring lecturer for the British Commonwealth Institute, visiting schools across the UK talking about the Caribbean and giving readings and workshops. His first adult collection of poems Man to Pan (1982) was the winner of the Casa de las Américas Prize. In 1983 he published his first collection of children’s poems, I Din Do Nuttin a collection for younger children, illustrated by Susanna Gretz. Since then he has published poems for adults and for children of all ages, sometimes working with his wife, the poet Grace Nichols, and often with the illustrator Satoshi Kitamura as in Einstein the Girl Who Hated Maths (2002) and the The Young Inferno (2008). He has earned awards both for his own work and as an editor of collections. Described as “a unique and energetic force in contemporary British poetry”, he was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2012 and the Eleanor Farjeon Award for services to children’s literature in 2016.

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Jacqueline Woodson was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1963, and shortly thereafter moved with her mother and siblings to Greenville, South Carolina where she spent much of her early formative years in the care of her maternal grandparents. At age seven she moved to Brooklyn, New York where she has since lived. She studied at Adelphi University and at the New School in New York and then worked as an editorial assistant and drama therapist for runaway children. Though a slow reader, she began writing as a child and now has a prolific body of writing including picture books, books for middle grade readers, and especially young adult literature. She made her debut as an author in 1990 with Last Summer With Maizon, the first book in a trilogy about a friendship between two girls. In the same year she also published The Dear One, a story about teen pregnancy. Her thirty-three books and thirteen short stories range in subjects from foster care to interracial relationships, from drug abuse to the witness protection programme, but all share the common features of lyrical language, powerful characters, and an abiding sense of hope. In 2014, her autobiographical work Brown Girl Dreaming was the winner
of the National Book Award and Coretta Scott King Award and is a Newbery Honor book. It is the centrepiece of her oeuvre: her first-hand experiences of how African-Americans were treated differently in the North and South, where her own path to becoming a writer is woven in with her life experiences. Jacqueline Woodson was a Finalist for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award and won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2018. After serving as Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015-17 she was named National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature for 2018-19.

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Pablo Bernasconi was born in Buenos Aires in 1973. He studied graphic design and graduated from Buenos Aires University, where he later was a professor for five years. He began his career as an illustrator at the newspaper Clarín in 1998, preparing covers for more than three hundred and fifty editions of the newspaper supplement. His illustrations have also been published in newspapers and magazines around the world, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Saturday Evening Post, Telegraph and The Times. Besides his work with publishers and media, he collaborates with the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo) on their graphic projects. His favourite technique is collage and he has created text and illustrations for sixteen books and has provided the illustrations for a further twenty books. His most important books for children are Mentiras y Moretones (Lies and brushes, 2016), El Brujo, el horrible y el libro rojo de los hechizos, (The wizard, the ugly and the book of shame, 2008), La verdadera explicación (The real explanation, 2012), El Diaro del Capitán Arsenio (The diary of Captain Arsenio, 2006) and Excesos y exageraciones (Excesses and exaggerations, 2010). He has participated in several individual and group exhibitions in Argentina and abroad and has received numerous prizes. He was selected to represent Argentina at the Bologna Book Fair in 2008 and at BIB in 2009. His work has been included in several collections, including “Illustration Now” by TASCHEN in 2014 and the Society of Newspaper Design (SND) – Gold Medal in 2012 from the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico (SEP).  Pablo Bernasconi was a Finalist for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Ruben Grigoryan was born 1954 in Yerevan. He studied under P. Terlemezyan at the Art College and then attended the Yerevan State Institute of Fine Arts, where he graduated in 1984. He worked as Art Director in the Yerevan Youth Theatre for five years and from 2000 to 2012 he worked on animated films at the Armenia National Cinematic Centre. He has illustrated 25 children’s books for many Armenian authors, including Hovh. Toumanyan (The foolish man, The hunter that lied, 2000) and Nouneh Sarkissian (The bald hedgehog, 2010, Three dragons, 2009 and David, Hayk and Baziliscus, 2012). His illustrations for children contain simple, kind, colourful and dynamic images that are, when needed, elaborately multi-layered, as in the black and white illustrations of David, Hayk and Baziliscus. Since 1982 he has participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, biennales in Armenia, Germany, Russia, Cyprus, USA, Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey and the UK. He has had solo exhibitions in San Paolo in 1999 and in Yerevan in 2004 and 2006. 

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Ann James was born in 1952 and grew up in Melbourne. She earned a Higher Diploma at Melbourne Teachers College and became an art teacher. She then worked as a graphic designer and illustrator of educational publications for the Ministry of Education in Victoria. Her first book, A Pet for Mrs Arbuckle, written by Gwenda Smyth, was published in 1981 and by 1988 she had published 14 books and was established as a freelance illustrator. In that year she and her partner Ann Haddon established Books Illustrated, a gallery promoting picture books and their creators with exhibitions in Australia and overseas. Ann James has published more than 80 books, some of which she has written and illustrated. She uses watercolour, charcoal, pastels, and also a variety of innovative media, celebrating the child’s view of the world in a whimsical, delightful fashion. She describes her style of illustration as character driven and spontaneous, with humour and humanity at heart. Her works include Little Humpty (2003); Lucy Goosey; Sadie & Ratz (2008), the Audrey of the Outback (2008-2011) series. Many have won or been short-listed for the CBCA Book of the Year Awards, including Bernice Knows Best by Max Dann, which was CBCA Junior Book of the Year in 1984, Hannah Plus One by Libby Gleeson, which won the same award in 1997, and The Midnight Gang by Margaret Wild, which was a 1997 CBCA Picture Book of the Year Honour Book. In 2003, she received the Dromkeen Medal, which is awarded annually for work that makes a significant contribution to the appreciation and development of children’s literature and in 2016, she was awarded the Order of Australia, AM, for services to Children’s Literature.

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Linda Wolfsgruber was born 1961 in Bruneck, South Tyrol and currently lives in Vienna. She attended art college in St. Ulrich in Gröden (Italy) and subsequently completed her training in typesetting in Munich (Germany) and in graphic design in Bruneck in 1980. After her professional training she studied at the Scuola del Libro in Urbino (Italy) from 1981 to 1983 and then started to work as a freelancing illustrator and graphic designer in Bruneck and Vienna. She has been teaching at the Scuola d’illusstrazione di Sarmede  in Italy since 1996 and designs covers for books and CDs as well as making illustrations for newspapers and magazines such as Die Zeit. She uses mixed media methods, including drawing (in charcoal or colour pencil), painting (in acrylic, tea or alternative materials), spraying paint on paper, cutting out, gluing and crafting miniatures. In Wie war das am Anfang? (How was it in the beginning? 2009), illustrations were assembled on several levels of transparent paper. Other important works include Daisy ist ein Gänseblümchen (Daisy is a daisy – except when it is a girl’s name, 2009), Der Elefant und der Schmetterling (The elephant and the butterfly, 2013), Arche (Ark, 2013) and The Camel in the Sun (2014). She has travelled widely, including extended stays in Nairobi and Teheran, describing herself as a collector of impressions. Her books have won the Österischer Staatspreis für Kinder und Jugendliteratur and the Kinder und Jugendbuchpreis der Stadt Wien several times. Linda Wolfsgruber was nominated for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award and was a Finalist in 2018. 

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Anne Brouillard was born in 1967 in Louvain. She trained to be an illustrator at the Saint-Luc school in Brussels. She is the author and illustrator of more than forty books, most of them for children. She is an artist who handles both text and illustrations with dexterity, her writing plays with the musicality of sounds, combined with a sense of graphic poetry that allows her to represent the different nuances of light: brightness of the sun in broad daylight or soft lighting of houses at dusk, but also, and perhaps most importantly, the reverberation of water. She uses a palette of colours that describe the sweetness of everyday life (games in the garden, shared meals, house interiors, walks, the weather), or sometimes the strangeness of a world on the edge of the supernatural (memories, dreams, unconscious). She has used black and white, to distinguish dream and reality in Le pays du rêve (The dream country, 1996), and to highlight the lights in Voyages (Journeys, 1994).  Her books also vary in style by offering selected pieces at the border between the illustration of a children's book and that of a comic strip, as well as in shape and size. She received the Versele Prize twice, in 1991 for her first book Les trois chats (Three cats, 1990) and in 1998 for La terre tourne (The world is spinning around, 1997) and the Golden Apple in Bratislava in 1993 for Le sourire du loup (The smile of the wolf).  In 2015, she received the Grand prix triennal delittérature de jeunesse de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.

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Ciça Fittipaldi was born in 1952 in Sao Paolo. She studied classical ballet from the age of 13 and danced with a theatre company in São Paolo from 1966 to 1970. She began studies in Architecture and Fine Arts at the University of Brasilia and then completed an MA in Arts and Visual Culture at the National University of Goiás in 2005. Her interest in Brazilian indigenous culture and an extended stay with the indigenous Nambiquara tribe led to one of her first acclaimed books: Naro, o gambá (Naro, the polecat, 1988), part of the Morená series. A related interest in African tribal art is reflected in her illustrations of the first two books of Bichos da Africa (African animal tales, 2003) series as well as Os gêmeos do tambor (The twins of the drums, 2006) and Naninquiá, a moça bonita (Naninquiá, the pretty, 2013), which are retellings of traditional African stories and fables, all by the author Rogério Andrade Barbosa. Currently, Ciça Fittipaldi teaches drawing, illustration and book design at the National University of Goiás. All of her works display her vast research, with methods learnt from anthropologists and her experience as a professor. She has received the Jabuti award and many of her books have been recognised as “Highly Recommended” by FNLIJ (IBBY Brazil). Her work has been seen regularly at exhibitions in Brazil and abroad, including at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and BIB. She has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times, most recently in 2018.

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Isabelle Arsenault was born in 1978 in Sept-Iles, Québec and currently lives in Montréal. After studies in fine arts and graphic design at the Université du Québec à Montréal, she specialized in illustration. She quickly gained recognition, receiving awards from major international illustration contests and winning the Grand Prix for Illustration from Magazines du Québec, for six years running. With fifteen illustrated books to her name, Isabelle Arsenault has won many awards and earned many distinctions, including winner of the prestigious Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award three times for Le coeur de monsieur Gauguin in 2004, Virginia Wolf in 2012 and Jane, le renard & moi in 2012. Virginia Wolf was also selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. Another book, Migrant (2011) and Jane, the Fox & Me (2013), the English translation of Jane, le renard & moi, were on The New York Times “Ten Best Illustrated Books” for their respective years. Isabelle Arsenault’s flexibility as an illustrator of diverse publications - from an alphabet book to a graphic novel to both fictional and non-fictional picture books - has brought her a wide-ranging audience. She is greatly admired for her ability to tackle and humanize tough and complex subject matter with a distinctive and evocative style. Her illustrations, while immediately accessible, leave a lasting impression through their subtle undercurrents. She has that uncanny ability to tap into her childhood dreams and imaginings, as well as into the minds of her subjects. Isabelle Arsenault was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and Jane, le renard & moi was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.     

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Zhu Chengliang spent his childhood in Suzhou, west of Shanghai, a place of beautiful natural scenery. He attended the Department of Fine Art of Nanjing University and worked as an editor and designer. As an illustrator he uses different techniques for different stories: in Zao Wang Ye (The story of the kitchen god, 1988), a story about a traditional festival, he used the typical Chinese New Year painting style; for the book Huo Yan (Flame, 2007) by  Xi Dun, he used watercolours to express the emotion in the story of a threatened fox. Watercolour also conveys the beautiful landscapes in the story of a grandson and a little fox in Ye Ye de Da Huo Xia by Xu Lu (Grandpa’s tinderbox, 2013), which was selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. His most successful work, Tuan Yuan (A New Year’s reunion, 2008) by Yu Liqiong was awarded first prize in the Feng Zikai Children’s Book Award 2010 and the English translation published by Walker Books was listed as one of the 2011 Ten Best Illustrated Books by the New York Times. In 2018 he exhibited his works at the Illustrators Exhibition of the Bologna Children Book Fair in Shanghai. Zhu Chengliang was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2018.    

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Dubravka Kolanović was born in Zagreb in 1973. She studied illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design in the US and at the Academy of Fine Art in Zagreb, where she graduated in 1998. After completing her studies she spent three months as a guest artist at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. In 2002 she attended the master workshop of the renowned Polish illustrator Jozef Wilkon in Saremede, Italy. She published her first book A Special Day at the age of 18 and since then she has illustrated over 200 picture books, books and school textbooks as well as greeting cards and posters for UNICEF, as well as cards, puzzles and toys. Her specific artistic expression and stylisation is based on delicate colours and harmonious coordination of soft, subtle forms, as seen in the illustrations for the story, Halugica (2001) by Vladimir Nazor, which was selected for the 2004 IBBY Honour List. In 2016 her picture book Bao baobab i mala Kibibi (Bao the Baobab and Little Kibibi) won the Ovca u kutiji, literary-art award for best Croatian picture book. In 2017 her book, Čarolija zagrljaja (The Magic of a Hug) won the same award and was also awarded the Grigor Vitez Award for Best Illustrated Croatian picture book. Her work was selected for the BIB in Bratislava in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 and at the Bologna Book Fair in 2015 as part of the Croatian Guest of Honour exhibit. Her work as an activist for Earthwatch Institute, an organization devoted to the protection of nature, has taken her to projects all over the world and has greatly influenced the themes of her illustrations. 

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Born in Pafos in 1968, Sandra Eleftheriou now lives and works in Larnaca.
She studied graphic arts at the Alexander College in Cyprus, from where she graduated with an Honours diploma in Graphic Design. Since 2004 she has been working as a freelance illustrator. For her illustrations she uses mixed techniques and computer processing, striving for playful, visually complete images, while always keeping the young reader in mind. She has illustrated more than ninety books and has served on the panel for the National Illustration Awards in Cyprus. She has taken part in group exhibitions in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Slovakia and is a volunteer in workshops on illustration and for the promotion of reading. Her illustrations for To mistiko tis danganas (The secret of the claw, 2009) and I triss Priggipisses (The three princesses, 2010) won First Prize in the CYBBY illustration contest and she won the National Award for Illustration for O aperantos kosmos tou ouranou (The endless world of the sky, 2008), a collection of short stories by Elli Peonidoiu, Ta islia ke ta strava (Right and wrong, 2009), and To sitari (The wheat, 2012). Ta islia ke ta strava was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour Books selection. 

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Lilian Brøgger was born 1950 on Fanø, an island off the west coast of Jutland. She always knew she would draw and the light of sea and sky pervades her pictures. She studied at the Copenhagen School of Arts and Crafts (now the School of Design) and was the first to graduate as an illustrator. In her debut years in the 1970s, she worked in a consciously crude and awkward social-realist style. She contributed to the more poetic and fairytale-like imagery of the 1980s, and has held her own in the postmodern and deconstructionist revival that has characterized the 1990s and the turn of the century. Her curiosity has led her to use many techniques and visual forms and her work spans a wide range of expression. This progress can be seen in Louis Jensen’s Hundrede firkantede historier 1-9 (Hundred square stories, 1-9, 1992-2014) where her illustrations developed from fine black and white lines to powerful colours to graphic and collage. Lilian Brøgger has illustrated over a hundred books: her best-known works include Den fattige dreng fra Odense by Hjørdis Varmer (The poor boy from Odense, 2001), Anton elsker ymer (Anton loves Junket, 2006), Goethe’s Den unge Werthers lidelser re-told by Oskar K. (The Sorrows of Young Werther, 2010) and Melodi og kuglerne (Melodi and the marbles, 2014) by Mari Bacquin and Robert Zola Christensen. She has won several awards in Denmark including the Ministry of Culture Award, the Association for Book Craft’s Awards as well as a BIB Golden Apple in 2005. She has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times and was selected as a Finalist in 2006.    

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Piret Raud was born in Tallinn in 1971. She studied fine arts and printmaking at the Estonian Academy of Arts and worked as an illustrator. After illustrating other authors’ books for ten years she began to write. Her inventive and fast-paced stories, usually for children from six to ten years old, are matched by her lively drawings. Her book, Printsess Luluu ja härra Kere (Princess Lulu and Mr. Boney, 2008) received the Children’s Literature Award of the Cultural Endowment Foundation of Estonia and was an IBBY Honour List book in 2012. Her next book, Härra Linnu Iugu (Mr. Bird’s story, 2009) was translated into English, German, Spanish and French and was included in the White Ravens selection in 2010. Her story Emma roosad asjad (Emma loves pink, 2010), written for a Japanese publisher, has been translated into English and Italian and was the first Estonian book in digital format. Two more recent story collections, Natuke napakad lood (Slightly silly stories, 2012) and Teistmoodi printsessilood (Princesses with a twist, 2013) combine short nonsense fairy tales with simple black and white drawings. Her book, Trööömmmpfff ehk Eli hääl (Trööömmmpfff or Eli’s voice, 2016) was included in the 2018 IBBY Honour List. Piret Raud was nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2016.     

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François Roca was born in Lyon in 1971. He studied in Paris at the National School of Applied Arts Olivier-de-Serres and then in Lyon at the Émile-Cohl School. After graduating in 1993, he devoted himself for a time to painting and then exclusively to illustration. He began a collaboration with Fred Bernard, creating an imaginary universe in La reine des fourmis a disparu (The queen of ants has disappeared, 1996) which won several prizes including the Prix Goncourt Jeunesse in 1997. They had critical success with Jésus Betz (2001), a story of a boy born in 1894 without arms and legs, which won the Prix Baobab 2001, Prix Alphonse Daudet 2002 and Prix Goncourt Jeunesse 2002. The story was also included in the 2011 IBBY Selection of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities. Through this success they gained the freedom to tell illustrated stories for older children with difficult themes, including: L’Homme-Bonasi (The Bonsai-man, 2003) and L'Indien de la tour Eiffel (The Indian of the Eiffel Tower, 2004). François Roca’s style renders each illustration as an evocative painting. He sketches and paints each image individually, rather than sketching the whole book in advance: I begin directly with the first image of the book. I start from a white page, I draw, I sketch, and then I paint. More and more often, I start with the cover. If it’s good, then all the rest will follow. Sometimes I need a whole month just to find the first picture. François Roca also illustrates classical works and children’s books for other authors as well as covers for novels and magazines. He received the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2017. 

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Nikolaus Heidelbach was born 1955 in Lahnstein. He now lives in Koln as a freelance author and illustrator and is considered one of the most recognized, yet unconventional, artists in Germany. His father was a realist painter and he came into contact with art at an early age. He studied German philology, art history, and theatre in Koln and Berlin. In 1980 he published his first book for adults, Bilderbogen (Pictorial broadsheet) followed by his first children’s picture book Das Elefantentreffen oder 5 dicke Angeber (The meeting of the elephants or 5 fat braggarts) in 1982. Since then he has published over 50 illustrated books for children and adults. His work evades classical categories and he has a clear preference for addressing themes that are often considered taboo for children’s and youth literature: sexuality, death, aggression, loneliness or fear. In his work he succeeds in depicting children’s feelings and sensibilities and through his own visual language and style, which offers children complex, subtle imagery – pictures that continue to interpret and expand the narrative where the text ends. His best known works include Wenn ich gross bin, werde ich Seehund (When I grow up, I’m going to be a seal, 2011), which was selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List and the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. In addition to picture books with his own texts, he has illustrated children’s books such as Der neue Pinocchio (The new Pinocchio, 1988) by Christine Nöstlinger, poems by Josef Guggenmos, stories and fairy tales by the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. His books have been awarded numerous prizes, and in 2000 he received the Sonderpreis der Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis for his complete work. He was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Iris Samartzi was born in Athens in 1979 and began collecting children’s books at a very young age. She studied at the Vakalo Art and Design College, where she obtained two Bachelor degrees, in graphic design and
interior design. She also attended seminars on Children’s Art and Drama in Education at the Children’s Art Museum.
In 2004 she took her portfolio of personal work to children’s book publishers and to date she has illustrated more than eighty books. Rather than one “signature style” she experiments with a range of textures and techniques, colours and forms, materials and graphic designs. She won her first IBBY Greece Illustrated Book Award in 2006 and has won this Award six times as well as the Greek Graphic Design and Illustration (EBGE) Award three times, most recently in 2017 for Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer .. by Argyro Pipini. She has also received the Greek State Picture Book Award twice, in 2012 for Oi kaloi kai oi kakoi peirates (Good and bad pirates) by Antonius Papatheodoulou, which also was included in the White Ravens selection, and in 2016 for The magic world of Frederico by Trivizas. Also in 2016 she won the IX Compostela Prize for Una última carta (One last letter) by Antonius Papatheodoulou. Her illustrations for Odyssey, e polimichani istoria (Odyssey, the ingenious story, 2011) by Maria Angelidou were selected for the 2014 IBBY Honour List. She has worked in schools teaching art and organised art workshops for children. She has also been a member of the judging panel of the Greek State Book Awards and the EBGE Awards.

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Mari Takács was born in 1971 in Budapest. She studied at the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts as a textile designer and then at the Decorator School in Budapest, finally graduating from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design as a typographer in 1997. She worked as an art director for ten years at an advertising agency in Budapest while she was involved in several group and individual exhibitions. Her career as a children’s book illustrator began in 2002 and since then she has won the Beautiful Hungarian Book Awards four times: in 2006 with Friss tinta! (Fresh ink!), in 2008 with Meseország lakói (Who lives in Wonderland?) by István Tótfalusi, in 2013 with A londoni mackók (London teddy bears) by Krisztina Tóth and then in 2016 with Gúfó a fák ünnepén (Gúfó in the feast of trees) by Gábor Lanczkor. Hajnali csillag peremén (On the edge of the morning star, 2007) by Ferenc Kovács András won the Hungarian IBBY Children’s Book of the Year Award and A sötétben látó tündér (The fairy who could see in the dark, 2009) by László Bagossy received the Special Prize of Ministry of National Resources. Humour, innovation, playfulness and experimentation characterize her work. Her favourite tool is acrylic and the montage technique used in the Gúfó series, but she has worked with many techniques and forms including kamishibai (in Piroska és a Nagy Mágus, Little Red Riding Hood and The Great Magician, 2015) as well as puppet design and scenery for puppet shows.

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Farshid Shafiei was born in 1969, the fourth of five children, in Teheran. As a child he lived in his dreams and was fascinated by the work of his father who was an accomplished tailor. He enrolled in the Konkoor Atelier, where he met Mohammad Ebrahim Jafari, a poet and master of Iranian modern art. In 1991 he was accepted at the Islamic Azad University to study graphic design. He developed a preference for painting and illustration and tradition of Iranian narrative poetry. His illustrations mix several media, painting and fine art as well as animation and graphics. During his twenty years of professional activity, Farshid Shafiei has created more than sixty books, which have won many national and international awards, including a Golden Apple at the BIB in 2007 and White Ravens selection in 2010. One of his early successes was Shahrzād va bache-hā-ye qesegou (Shahrzad and young storytellers, 2002), which was included in the 2006 IBBY Honour List and selected for many exhibitions in Iran and abroad. Another work, Pir-e change (The old lyrist, 2004) was also received recognition in and outside Iran, including selection in the Sarmede International Exhibition of Illustrations for Children in 2005 in Italy. 
In addition to books, he has produced four acclaimed animation films. 

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Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick is one of Ireland’s foremost children’s book authors and illustrators. Born in 1962 in Dublin, she knew she wanted to be an artist from a young age. She studied design and illustration at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Her first children’s book, An Chanáil (The Canal), published in 1988, was highly acclaimed. Since then she has written and illustrated more than 22 books. She has received multiple nominations for the CBI Children’s Book Awards, was shortlisted in 2002 for I’m a tiger too! (2001); she won the award for Children’s Book of the Year in 2000 for Izzy and Skunk (2000), in 2002 for You, me and the big blue sea (2002) and in 2010 for There (2009). More recently, her wordless picture book Owl Bat Bat Owl (2016) was nominated for the CILIP Kate Greenaway award and included in the IBBY Silent Books 2017 selection. The originality of her voice and gentle sense of humour, together with her deft use of line and colour and the depth of the characters she creates, have made her a beloved illustrator in Ireland and abroad. She has used different mediums: delicate watercolours in The Sleeping Giant (1999), assured pencil drawings illuminate The Long March (1997), and luminous acrylic brushstrokes give warmth and expression to her characters in There (2009), and I am I (2006), while Owl Bat Bat Owl, was created using a digital painterly woodcut technique. Fitzpatrick treats her audience with respect in her illustrations; her perception, compassion and warmth are woven through her books. In 2008, she contributed to We Are All Born Free a picture book depicting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was published to great acclaim and has many international editions. 

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Beatrice Alemagna was born in Bologna in 1973. She began writing and illustrating at a young age; her first exhibition of illustrated tales was at 14. She studied graphic design at ISIA - Istituto Superiore per le Industrie Artistiche, Urbino (Italy). Training in typography and graphic design provided the perfect structure for her highly sensitive and expressive visual language that includes improvising with oils or pastels and experimenting with tissue paper or wool. In 1996 she won the First Prize at International Contest Figures Futures at the Salon du Livre, Paris and then, in 1997, she moved to France where now she lives and works. She has written and illustrated 24 books, that have been translated widely. In 2006 she wrote and illustrated Un lion à Paris (A lion in Paris), which received several awards including the 2006 Prix Baobab at the Salon du livre in Montreuil and a mention at the 2007 Bologna Ragazzi Awards. The story, I corvi (The crows of pearblossom, by Aldous Huxley) was included in the 2008 IBBY Honour List. Un grand jour de rien (On a magical do nothing day, 2016) won many awards including the Landerneau Prize and the Grand prix de l'illustration in France and Gold Medal of The Original Art exhibition of the Society of Illustrators (US). The book was also selected by the NY Times and NY City Library among the ten best children's books. As well as working in the field of children’s literature, she has designed fabrics and ceramics and worked as a poster artist for the Centre Pompidou in Paris for over ten years. 

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Seizo Tashima (born 1940 in Osaka) has been an illustrator of picture books since the 1960s, a golden age of Japanese picture books, and continues to produce powerful, passionate, and innovative works.  His first picture book was published in 1965, the folk tale Furuyanomori  (Leaky roof of the old house) by Teiji Seta. He has since published some 150 picture books of tremendous variety, some funny, others serious, stories of war, as well as folktales and books for babies.  Running through all his works there is a consistent spirit: the wellspring of his art is the vigour and vitality of life and slow-burning anger at war, destruction of the environment and discrimination as can be seen in the story Boku no koe ga kikoemasu ka (Can you hear my voice? 2012). The bold and primitive-looking technique of his 1967 work Chikara Taro (Strongman Taro), done in opaque earth paints, set the style for his depictions of character and life force through the various eras of his career. He won a Golden Apple at the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB) in 1969 for Chikara Taro. He is considered somewhat of an outsider in Japan because of his rebellious stance and constantly innovative endeavours as an artist. His work continuously challenges the boundaries between picture books and fine art, as when he created a “walk-in picture book” that opened in an abandoned school in the Niigata prefecture in 2009. He was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and his book, Boku no loe ga kikoemasuka was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.

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Hassan Manasrah was born in Amman. He studied applied arts with a specialty in interior design at Al-Balqa Applied University and he also studied art at the Institute of Fine Arts at the University of Jordan. He also received tuition in printmaking from specialists at the Jordan National Museum of Fine Arts. He did his first exhibition as a solo artist in 2006 and has since participated in several exhibitions in Jordan, across the Middle East and Europe. He is a multi-talented artist who has produced a variety of works in several fields, from designing and directing animated films to writing and illustrating books. He has illustrated around 20 books for children with several publishing houses, both Arab and foreign. In 2014 his book Why Not? was included on the shortlist of the Etisalat Award for the Best Illustration and the 2014 White Ravens selection. He won the Etisalat Award for Best Illustrations for the book The Blue Pool of Questions in 2016 and in 2018 he won the Etisalat Award for the Best Book of the Year for Nostalgia.

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Lee Uk-bae was born in Yongin in 1960. He grew up in the countryside but moved to Seoul and majored in sculpture at Hongik University. The democratic protests in Korea in the early 1980s influenced his worldview and painting style, leading him to reinterpret traditional Korean art in modern terms and make a contribution to ordinary people and labourers. He began to work as a writer and illustrator in the early 1990s and had his first success with Sori’s Harvest Moon Day in 1995, which was included of recommended books by the Children’s Book Research Group in Korea and the Japanese Ministry of Education. In addition to Japan, the book was also published in China, Taiwan, France and Switzerland. In all his picture books he adopts traditional Korean colouring techniques. He uses traditional brushes, paper and paints with a full range of colours that are clear and transparent. In The Strongest Rooster in the World (1997) by Lee Ho-baek, the mountains and the sky are expressed in dim dark colours reflecting the inner world of the rooster. The book was selected for BIB in 1997 and shortlisted for Good Books for Special Exhibitions at the Bologna Book Fair in 1999. His illustrations for Generous Grandma’s Dumpling Making (1998) by Chae In-Sun and The Mosquito and the Yellow Bull (2003) by Hyun Dong-yeom have also been included in the list of Korean recommended books. He wrote and illustrated A Tale of Tales (2008), which was included in the 2010 IBBY Honour List. His political views on the role of art to encourage peace continue to influence his work, for example in When Spring Comes to the DMZ (2010). 

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Gita Treice was born in Riga in 1969. In her youth she first studied ballet, then decorative design. She then went to the Latvian Academy of Art, where she completed a Bachelor’s degree in 1995, specialising in design graphics and environmental art followed by a Master’s degree in 2008. During her studies she participated in group exhibitions and submitted designs for the Latvian book design competition, The Golden Apple Tree, where she won first prize eight times, beginning in 2000. She has been nominated for the Janis Baltvilks Prize for best artist of children and youth books six times and in 2018 she won the prize in recognition of two of her best known works: Brūveri brūvē (The brewer’s brew: poems, 2018) by I., Z. and P. Brūveri and Latviešu brīnumu pasakas (Latvian fairy-tales, 2017). Gita Treice works only with natural materials: paper, cardboard and wood: I work, you may even say, not on paper but with paper. I tear it, I soak it. I paint it and glue it in layers. Actually I make illustrations from that. They usually are never simply drawn on the paper and then coloured.

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Kęstutis Kasparavičius, born in Sukstadvaris in 1954, is a writer and illustrator. He studied graphic design at the Academy of Art in Vilnius. He has illustrated 62 books, the first appearing in 1984, including many books of classical children’s literature – such as those by Andersen, Collodi, Hoffmann and Lear. He has also illustrated children books by contemporary Lithuanian and international writers and, in the past few years, his own texts. These include classic picture books, such as Braškių diena (Strawberry day, 2006), Mažoji žiema (The little winter, 2010), which was included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List, Apie daiktus (About things, 2013), Apie gyvūnus (About animals, 2014) and Kaimynė už kampo (The neighbour around the corner, 2016). Kęstutis Kasparavičius portrays the appearance, movements and facial expressions of animals in a lively and true-to-life manner. He humanizes not only animals, but other objects of the environment as well. In his works, a clear form, readily perceived by the child, is well matched with artistry, flight of fancy and play of nonsense. His style is easily recognizable: his light drawings with dabs of intense watercolour are always uplifting. In 1993 he received the Illustrator of the Year Award at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and in 2003 was awarded the Bologna Illustrators’ Exhibition Award for Excellence. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times, most recently in 2018. 

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Mauricio Gómez Morín Fuentes was born in Mexico City in 1956. From an early age he became interested in illustration and he began his formal apprenticeship as a visual artist at the age of 18, studying engraving at Taller de Gráfica Popular. Later he studied engraving and then painting in the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving La Es- meralda, where he made posters, graphic banners and murals for movements, organizations and popular struggles in the 1970s and 1980s. For ten years he was a professor in Graphic Design at the Metropolitan Autonomous University, for drawing, screen printing, illustration and printmaking. As an illustrator he has collaborated with several well-known magazines and newspapers in Mexico in addition to illustrating children’s books for the Ministry of Public Education. He was also artistic director of the Fondo de Cultura Económica where he illustrated several books for young people. His work is provocative with a clear reference to the social and cultural reality of Mexico today. He is an eclectic illustrator using a wide range of graphic and plastic techniques, as well as a large variety of figurative styles and artistic procedures. Among the books he has illustrated are: La pequeña niña que siempre tenía 
hambre (The little girl who was always hungry, 2009), El secreto de la flor que volaba (The secret of the flying flower, 2014), Tlajpiajketl o la canción del maíz (The corn song, 2014) and Capullo rojo, (The red cocoon, 2018). He received the award given by the Biennial Graphic Section of the National Institute of Fine Arts in 1983 and the National Graphic Arts Prize in 1998. He was nominated for the 2008 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Sylvia Weve was born in 1954 in Utrecht and grew up in Roosendaal. She loved to draw when she was a little girl and after secondary school she studied graphic design at the Art Academy in Arnhem. Since 1978 she has lived and worked as an independent illustrator in Amsterdam. To date she has illustrated over one hundred and fifty books. Early on in her career, Sylvia Weve drew mainly with a blunted pen and ink, showing her great capability to express emotions, movement, mood and personality with just a few lines. She illustrated several books of songs and poems by Karel Eykman, and developed a strong working relationship with Rindert Kromhout, illustrating many of his children’s books from the 1980s onward. She now constructs her illustrations by combining digital and traditional techniques, combining illustration and graphic design, which has led to masterful and daring award-winning books with the author Bette Westera since 1999. Sylvia Weve has also published two of her own books, including Kip en ei (Chicken and egg, 2006) that was awarded a Vlag en Wimpel. She has been awarded the Vlag en Wimpel three times, the Zilveren Penseel three times and a Gouden Penseel.  Ik leer je liedjes van verlangen, en aan je apenstaartje hangen (I’ll teach you songs of longing, and swinging by your monkey tail, 2010), written by Bette Westera, was selected for BIB’11 and included in the 2012 IBBY Honour List. In 2012, they received the Gouden Griffel and Woutertje Pieterse Award for Doodgewoon (Dead normal), which was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List.

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Iwona Chmielewska (born 1960 in Pabianice) studied at the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, graduating from the Printmaking Department in 1984. At the beginning of her career, she illustrated children’s classics such as The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, as well as Polish poetry. The turning point in her career came in 2003, when her books were published in South Korea. After publishing over 20 books, she was well known in Asia but hardly known in Poland. In 2011, Blumka’s Tagebuch (Blumka’s diary), originally published in Germany, was published in Poland as Pamiętnik Blumki. The book was loved by both readers and critics and she began to enjoy wide recognition in her own country. She won the BIB Golden Apple in 2007 for the book Thinking ABC (2006) a book for Korean children learning the English alphabet. She won the Bologna Ragazzi Award twice for Korean books, in 2011 for A House of the Mind: Maum by Kim Hee-KyungeHH and in 2013 for Eyes. Her book, abc.de (2015) was nominated for the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis in 2016. Thus far, she has published over 40 books, cooperating with authors and publishing houses in Poland and abroad. Her style has been described as subtle and melancholic. She often uses pencils and crayons, cutting out pieces from old notebooks and journals and embroidering with one colour. Her drawings are clear, sometimes slightly naïve, realistic but poetic, always neat and studious. She leaves a lot of empty space in her illustrations and often uses blue, which reflects the spiritual and melancholic character of many of the books she has illustrated. Iwona Chmielewska was a Finalist for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Victoria Fomina was born in 1963 in Kerch, a small town on the coast of the Black Sea. She studied architecture, graduating from the Moscow State Academy of Architecture in 1987, but decided to pursue a career as an illustrator. She has illustrated 40 books for children, from Russian and foreign authors, using water-based paints - watercolour, gouache and acrylic - to create a style she has called “well ornamented minimalism”. She has exhibited her work at the Bologna Book Fair, Nami Concours and at the BIB. In 2003, she won the Golden Apple at BIB for Mozart (2002) by Diana Cook. She has illustrated many classics including Alice in Wonderland (2003), The Snow Queen (2010), and the House that Jack Built (2015). Victoria Fomina also works as a reviewer with the graduates of Moscow State University of Printing and as a juror for several prizes including New Book for Children in Russia, BIB in Slovakia in 2017 and for the Global Illustration Award at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2018. 

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Damijan Stepančič was born in 1969 in Ljubljana. After completing the secondary school for design and photography in Ljubljana, he continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in the field of design. After completing two years of design, in 1991 he decided to study at the Department of Painting where he graduated in 1996. Since then, he has devoted himself to illustrating books for young people, collaborating with several Slovenian authors, including Lucija Stepančič, Andrej Rozman Roza and Vitomil Zupan. One of his illustrated works, written by Tone Pavček, was included in the 2010 IBBY Honour List: Majhnice in majnice: pesmi mnogih let za mnoge bralce= Budding Songs, Maying Songs (poems of many years for many readers). His most fruitful collaboration has been with Peter Svetina. In 2010 their book Modrost nilskih konjev (Hippopotamus wisdom) won the Golden Pear Award, given by Pionirska and the Ljubljana City Library, and was included in the 2011 White Ravens collection. Čudežni prstan (The magic ring, 2011) was selected as Most Beautiful Slovenian Picture Book, won the Hinko Smrekar Award for Illustrations and was also included in the 2013 White Ravens selection. More recently, Ropotarna (The lumber room, 2012) won the Večernica Award and Golden Pear Award in 2013 and was included in the 2016 IBBY Honour List. The expressiveness of his illustrations is influenced by his painting skills: from the underlying colours and composition to the size of formats. He has so far illustrated almost a hundred books, co-created many comic books and had several independent exhibitions in the field of illustration. He has also illustrated textbooks, exercise books, handbooks for teachers, and other educational material, as well as articles in children’s magazines. He was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award. 

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Niki Daly was born 1946 in Cape Town and educated at the Observatory Boys High School. He was initially interested in music and worked in London as a singer and songwriter in the early 1970s before returning to South Africa, where he took on the position of junior art director for advertising agencies in Cape Town. He also worked as a freelance illustrator and published his first book, The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Road, for which he was awarded the British Arts Council Illustration Award in 1978. In the late 1970s he returned to London where he worked as a graphics teacher, free-lanced as an editorial illustrator and taught art and design. In the 1980s he went back to South Africa, this time as the head of Graphic Design at Stellenbosch University. In 1983, he began working for David Philip Publishers as the head of Songololo Books, where he led writing and illustration workshops. Since 1978 he has been involved in the production of more than fifty books. Greatly influenced by comics, with their movement and action and use of simple lines to convey the story, his illustrations create intercultural awareness and build empathy, representing children as they are, no matter in which community or social stratum they live. Many of his books have won various awards in South Africa, UK and US, and several have been included in international selections. Three of his books have been included in the IBBY Honour Lists: The Boy on the Beach (1998) in 2000, Yebo, Jamela! (What’s cooking, Jamela! 2001) in 2004, and The Herd Boy (2013) in 2014. Other notable books include: Not So Fast Songololo (1985), One Round Moon and A Star for Me (1995), All the Magic in the World (1993), Fly, Eagle Fly! (1982) and Jamela’s Dress (1999).

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Elena Odriozola was born in San Sebastián in 1967 and studied art and decoration. After working in an advertising agency for eight years, she began working as a full-time illustrator in 1997. Since then she has illustrated over 100 books as well as posters and book covers. Her illustrations offer a personal interpretation of each literary work: with delicate, intimate lines her drawing is subtle, refined and efficient, both technically and conceptually. Her books have been published in several Spanish and foreign languages and her work has been recognised with numerous awards. Her illustrations were selected at the BIB in 2003, 2013 and 2015 and she has won the Basque Award for Illustration twice: once in 2009 for her work in the book Aplastamiento de las gotas (The smashing of the raindrops, 2008) by Julio Cortázar and again in 2013 for Tropecista (Tumbler, 2012) by Jorge Gonzalvo. She was selected for the Bologna Book Fair exhibition in 2010 and in the same year won the CJ Picture Book Award for the book Oda a una estrella (Ode to a star, 2009) by Pablo Neruda. She was invited to the International Fair of Illustrations for Children in Sarmede, Italy in 2010, to which she returned in 2012. Her work has been selected for the IBBY Honour List twice: in 2006 for Atxiki sekretua (Keep the secret, 2004) by Patxi Zubizarreta and in 2014 for Eguberria (Christmas, 2012) by Juan Kruz Igerabide. She won the Junceda International Award 2014 for her original work for Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, which also earned her a BIB Golden Apple in 2015. In the same year she won the National Award for Illustration. She was nominated for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award.    

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Eva Lindström (born 1952 in Västerås) studied painting at the Konstfack (University College of Arts, Crafts and Design) in Stockholm. She drew illustrations for the children’s magazine KP and began to write and illustrate her own books. Her first book, Kattmössan (The cat hat, 1988) drew heavily on the influence of comics using strong colours and bold black outlines. She developed a distinctive humorous style both in text and pictures. Her prose is spare and laconic with a special blend of darkness and humour. She has said her stories often circle around subjects, such as lost things, lost people, friendship and not friendship, longing ...  For her illustrations she blends watercolour, gouache and pencil in a distinctive way. Her characters - human or animal - are drawn in a somewhat “straggly” style against backgrounds with a saturated, rich colour palette. Her best-known works include Min vän Lage (My friend Lage, 2001), Vilma och Mona spanar och smyger (Vilma and Mona sneak and spy, 2004), which was included in the 2006 IBBY Honour List; Jag rymmer! (I’m running away!, 2006), I skogen (In the woods, 2008) and Olli och Mo (Olli and Mo, 2012), which was nominated for the Nordic Council Prize in 2014. Eva Lindström has won several awards in Sweden including the Snöbollen in 2012 for Best Picture Book of the Year for Apan och jag (Monkey and me, 2011). In 2013 she was awarded the most prestigious national book award, the Augustpriset for her illustrations to Snöret, fågeln och jag (The string, the bird and me, 2013) by Ellen Karlsson. She has been nominated for the Augustpriset twelve times in all, a unique achievement. She has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award several times and was a Finalist in 2014. 

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Albertine was born in 1967 in Dardagny, near Geneva. She studied at the École des arts décoratifs and the École supérieure d’art visuel in Geneva.  She obtained her diploma in 1990 and opened a screen-printing workshop in the same year. She became a press illustrator a year later and in 1996 she married the writer Germano Zullo. Their many joint children’s publications have received several awards, including: BIB Golden Apple in 1999 for Marta et la bicyclette (Marta and the bicycle); Prix Suisse Jeunesse et Médias in 2009; Prix Sorcières in 2011 and New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book in 2012. Her drawings are lively and full of humour using a very fine line (pencil or Rotring) and often bright and cheerful colours (gouache or digital). Her natural spontaneity appears throughout her works, with a sense of detail and an infinite precision, as well as a sense of humour. She has exhibited her drawings, screen prints, lithographic works, wood engravings, objects and notebooks in Geneva, Paris, Rome, Valencia and Tokyo. Among her most important books for children are the titles: La rumeur de Venise (The Venice rumour, 2009), which was selected for the 2010 IBBY Honour List; Les Oiseaux (Little bird, 2011); Les Gratte-Ciel (Sky high, 2011); and Ligne 135 (Line 135, 2012). Her book, Mon tout petit (My little one, 2015), an endless embrace between mother and child that unwinds in a flipbook, was selected for the 2016 IBBY Honour List; it won the 2016 Bologna Ragazzi Award and won the Green Island Award at the Nami Island Concours in 2017. She was a Finalist for the 2018 Hans Christian Andersen Award and her book, Les Oiseaux, was included in the list of books highlighted by the Andersen Jury as an outstanding work.

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Vladyslav Yerko was born in Kyiv in 1962. He had an early interest in illustrations and reading but did not have an artistic education until he studied book graphics at the Ivan Fedorov Polygraphic University in Kyiv from 1984 to 1990. He has worked in book graphics since 1989 and is best known for his illustrations to classics including Andersen, Shakespeare, Hoffman, Swift and Carroll and also for his black and white illustrations for books by Paulo Coelho. His illustrations of Snihova Koroleva (The Snow Queen, 2000) by HC Andersen received the Grand Prix award at the Ukrainian Book of the Year Award in 2000. It was included in the 2002 White Ravens selection and in UK and US children’s book selections and was widely translated. His Kazky Tumannoho Albionu (Child Roland and Other Knight’s Tales, 2003) was also awarded best Children’s Book in Ukraine and selected for the 2006 White Ravens list. His illustrations for Malenkyi Prynts (The Little Prince, 2015) were included in the 2018 IBBY Honour List. He also made the illustrations for the Ukrainian versions of Harry Potter. He creates colour illustrations for children books (using watercolour, gouache and tempera on paper) and black-white graphics for youth (using pen, ink and computer graphics). Vladyslav Yerko creates colourful, exquisite and emotional illustrations that are graphically detailed to form a canvas resembling a medieval miniature or tapestry.

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Helen Oxenbury was born 1938 and grew up in Suffolk. As a child, she enjoyed drawing and was encouraged by her architect father who recognised her early talent. She trained at Ipswich School of Art and then at the Central School of Art and Design in London.  She studied to be a theatre set designer and worked in theatre in Israel and then in TV and film in Britain She began to illustrate children’s books, publishing her first book in 1967. Two years later, she was awarded the UK Library Association’s Kate Greenaway Medal for the two books she published that year: illustrations to Edward Lear’s poem The Quangle Wangle’s Hat and Margaret Mahy’s The Dragon of An Ordinary Family. In the early 1980s she was at the forefront of a new movement in publishing of books for babies in the form of robust “board books”. She developed a new style of illustration that was simple, with a minimum of background, drawing her young characters with energy, warmth and humour, while avoiding caricature. In the 1980s and 1990s she created several prize-winning and popular books that have become modern classics. These include her illustrations for Michael Rosen’s We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (1989), Martin Waddell’s Farmer Duck (1991), Eugene Trivizas’s Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig (1993), and Trish Cooke’s So Much (1994). In 1999, she was awarded her second Greenaway Medal for her illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. In 2005, she completed her interpretation of Alice’s adventures with Alice Through the Looking Glass. Many of her titles have been awarded the CILIP Kate Greenaway Award and the Nestlé Smarties Book Prize. In 2018, she received, together with her husband, John Burningham, the BookTrust Lifetime Achievement Award. 

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Allen Say was born in 1937 in Yokohama to a Korean father and Japanese American mother. By the end of World War II, “everything was broken,” including Say’s scattered family. Determined to become an artist, at the age of 13 he sought out the renowned cartoonist Noro Shipei, who became a spiritual father to him until he emigrated to the US. He began a peripatetic journey that included time in a military academy, high school, studies in architecture at the University of California in Berkeley and then a career in advertising and commercial photography. His contribution to children’s literature began when an editor at Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company approached him about illustrating The Boy of the Three-Year Nap, which was published in 1988 and is a retelling of an old Japanese folktale. The book won a Caldecott Honor Award and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award. From that time forward he dedicated himself to writing and illustrating award-winning books for children. He is perhaps best known for his 1994 Caldecott Medal-winning Grandfather’s Journey, which explored three generations of his family’s moves between Japan and the US. His masterful watercolour illustrations are like exquisite paintings and exhibit a photo-like realism. Allen Say has also depicted his own life through two memoirs that meld paintings, cartoon images, and archival photos: Drawing From Memory (2011) and The Inker’s Shadow (2005). These and many of his other work received numerous awards and recognition in the US. Exhibitions of Say’s works include the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art in Massachusetts, and most recently, in Multnomah County Library in his adopted hometown of Portland, Oregon. 

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