The Maurice Sendak Foundation Announces the 2026 Sendak Fellows:
Ridgefield, CT (February 5, 2026) – The Maurice Sendak Foundation has named four illustrators as 2026 Sendak Fellows: Keiko Hayner, Angie Kang, Zahra Marwan, and Sid Sharp.
The Sendak Fellowship, an artist residency and mentoring program, was founded in 2009 by renowned artist and children’s book illustrator Maurice Sendak, his long-time assistant and executive director of The Maurice Sendak Foundation, Lynn Caponera, and photographer, community activist, and Foundation board member Dona Ann McAdams. During the four-week program, the Fellows engage in a project of their choosing in the relative isolation of a rural setting. At the same time, they draw inspiration from one another and from visiting artists and professionals in the field, while working in studios at Sendak’s Ridgefield property, with access to Sendak’s house and archives.
Maurice Sendak wanted to create a formal program for what he had been doing informally his whole career: helping promising illustrators. In Sendak’s words, the goal of the Fellowship is for the Fellows to “create work that is not vapid, stupid, or sexy, but original. Work that excites and incites. Illustration is like dance; it should move like—and to—music.”
“Maurice loved sharing his work and the work of other artists that inspired him,” says Lynn Caponera. “We continue this with the Fellowship. Although Maurice is no longer with us, the fellows always come away feeling as though Maurice is here, guiding them in what he feels makes a great picture book. He would be delighted to have us welcome these four fellows into his world.”
The 2026 Sendak Fellows:
Zahra Marwan works in watercolor and ink to create work that reflects her cultural roots in Kuwait and her life in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where she lives now. Her debut picture book, Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, was published by Bloomsbury and named one of The New York Times / New York Public Library’s 10 Best Illustrated Books as well as one of NPR’s Best Books of 2022. The week before receiving the Dilys Evans Founders Award from the Society of Illustrators, she was honored by the UN Human Rights Commission for creating art that brings visibility to statelessness, indigenous groups, and minority rights.
Sid Sharp is an artist from Toronto who makes drawings, paintings, and comics. Their debut graphic novel The Wolf Suit was a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection and was featured in Best of the Year lists of The New York Public Library, School Library Journal, and The Globe and Mail. Their second graphic novel for kids with Annick Press, Bog Myrtle, published in 2024. Sid’s interests include folklore, scary stories, mysterious and unknowable things, and finding good sticks for their stick collection.
https://www.sidsharp.com/comics-for-kids
Keiko Hayner is a children’s book author and illustrator. She was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. She graduated from Osaka University of Arts and obtained a bachelor's degree in graphic design before moving to the U.S in 2004. She worked with young children in early childhood education for a decade before returning to her creative practice with watercolor and color pencils. Keiko’s forthcoming books are from Abrams; Random House Children's Books; Little, Brown BFYR; and Chronicle.
Angie Kang makes art in Los Angeles. She is the author-illustrator of Our Lake (Kokila, 2025), which received the Dilys Evans Founder’s Award from the Society of Illustrators, the Golden Pinwheel Audience Choice Award at the Chinese Children’s Book Fair in Shanghai, and was featured on Best of 2025 book lists of NPR, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal, The Horn Book, the Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature, and more. She is also the illustrator of Navigating Night (Anne Schwartz Books, 2026), written by Julie Leung. The recipient of the Ezra Jack Keats Fellowship at MacDowell, she was also featured in Best Small Fictions 2024, named one of Narrative’s “30 under 30” writers, and shortlisted for the 2023 Cartoonist Studio Prize. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Believer, The Rumpus, Ecotone, and elsewhere.
About The Maurice Sendak Foundation and The Sendak Fellowship
The Maurice Sendak Foundation is a 501(3)(c) nonprofit organization that promotes the artistic legacy of Maurice Sendak by ensuring his books are widely available in ideal editions, by preserving his home and studio, and by exhibiting his original art. It supports illustrators and writers in children’s literature, especially supporting excellence in the art of the picture book. The Sendak Fellowship, a core program of the Foundation, is a residency that encourages, teaches, and supports artists who tell stories with illustration. Fellows are selected each year through nominating and judging committees. Past fellows include Harry Bliss, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Terry and Eric Fan, Yuyi Morales, Sergio Ruzzier, Doug Salati, and Sara Varon.
https://www.sendakfoundation.org/sendak-fellowship
https://www.sendakfoundation.org/
Contact: