2023 Greece

Vagelis Iliopoulos was born in Athens, Greece in 1964. He studied Pedagogy and Theology in the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and is currently the Director of one of the most prestigious private primary schools in Athens. He wrote his first children’s book in 1995 and in 1997, he published O Trigonopsaroulis (The Little Triangle Fish ). By talking about tolerance and understanding, this little fish has become the most famous contemporary Greek literary hero. Since then, Vagelis has written a great number of books for children and young adults. Many of them have been translated and published in several countries and have frequently received awards, including the Award of the Greek Section of IBBY, and the Greek State Children’s Literature Award. He has also written plays for theatre and movie scripts and translates children’s literature. Vagelis’ books have been selected for the IBBY Honour List, the IBBY Outstanding Collection of Books for Young People with Disabilities and the International Youth Library’s White Ravens catalogue. He has participated in international book festivals, such as the Berlin Literature Festival, the Book Fest in Cyprus, the Bankya Festival in Bulgaria, among others. As a volunteer for the promotion of reading and children’s literature, Vagelis writes articles, gives lectures, and organizes different reading projects and campaigns in schools and libraries. He also teaches Creative Writing. The Greek Association for the Psychosocial Health of Children and Adolescents has appointed him Mental Health Messenger in Schools. He has been nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award by the Greek Section of IBBY, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) by the Cypriot Section of IBBY. IBBY Greece has also proclaimed him as Ambassador of the Greek Children’s Book.

Photini Stephanidi was born in Greece in 1962. The artist and illustrator Photini Stephanidi completed her studies in painting and fresco art at the Athens School of Fine Arts in 1986, where her teachers included artists of international repute such as Yannis Moralis and Dimitris Mitaras. Since 1988, she has exhibited her work in twenty solo exhibitions, as well as in many group and international exhibitions of painting, engraving and illustration in Greece and abroad. Her pictures have featured in more than a hundred published works, including editions of Greek folk tales, literature, and poetry, and she has made a specialty of producing collectors’ editions. She also has been the author of ten books. Notable among the many prizes and distinctions her work has gained for illustration and engraving are the Biennale of Illustration Bratislava Plaque (2001), the Greek State Prize for Illustration (2003, 2007 and 2011), the Belgrade Illustrators’ Biennale ‘Golden Pen’ (2005 and 2013) and ‘Plaquette’ (2010), the prize for illustrations from the Greek Section of IBBY (1995, 2005, 2011 and 2018), as well as the EBGE prize and mention 2007 and 2013. She was selected by the Greek Section of IBBY for the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA). She has also been awarded the prize for young adults’ literature from the Greek Section of IBBY (2021).