Junjun Chen is from China and currently lives in New York. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay in 2023. She received a  2024 Award of Excellence for illustration from Communication Arts. Before moving to New York, she worked in China's financial industry. She was inspired to change careers, study art, and work as a visual designer, where she discovered her love and passion for illustration.  

Marianna Coppo was born and lives in Rome, where she writes and illustrates picture books with the help of her cats. She is the creator of over a dozen books including Petra, translated into 14 languages and a Kirkus Best Picture Book of 2018 and nominee for the Kate Greenaway Medal; A Very Late Story, translated into 15 languages; Thingamabob, winner of the 34th Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award; Fish and Crab, an Indigo Best Children’s Book of 2023; and The Book That Can Read Your Mind, an Amazon, Indigo, and Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2024.

Rob Dunlavey is the illustrator of In the Woods by David Elliott, Owl Sees Owl by Laura Godwin, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Whale Fall by Melissa Stewart, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year, and more. His editorial illustrations have been featured in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Business Week, and The Los Angeles Times. Rob studied fine art and has an MFA in sculpture. He lives in Natick, Massachusetts. 

Gracey Zhang is an award-winning illustrator, author, and animator with a BFA in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her books include Lala’s Words, winner of the 2022 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, When Rubin Plays, Nigel and the Moon by Antwan Eady,  Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal Best Books of the Year, and Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear, for which she received a 2025 Caldecott Honor. Her clients include The New York Times, NBC, and NPR. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, Gracey is now based in New York. 

Charlotte Ager is a freelance illustrator based in London, originally from the Isle of Wight. She has worked for a wide range of clients including The New York Times, Google design, Penguin Random House and Flying Eye Books across editorial illustration, branding and book publishing. She loves that illustration has the ability to communicate the difficult and challenging whilst having enormous capacity for joy and silliness. She likes to find the point where memory, imagination and observation meet.

Rocío Araya is an illustrator from Bilbao, Spain, currently living in France. She has illustrated more than ten books, some of which she is also the author. Rocío explores the universe of childhood, as a place of connection with the deepest part of ourselves. Rocío’s English-language translation of her book Pájaros en la Cabeza was published by Elsewhere Editions in 2024 as Head in the Clouds.

Cozbi A. Cabrera is the author-illustrator of My Hair is a Garden and Me & Mama which won a 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor and a Caldecott Honor.  A selection of her titles as illustrator include Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade, a 2021 ALA Sibert Informational Award Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor, and Most Loved In All The World by Tonya Cherie Hegamin. Her dolls, quilts and paintings were exhibited concurrently with the Gees Bend Quilts at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum in 2017. She continues to work on community quilting projects that trace both a sense of place and memory. Cozbi lives in Evanston, Illinois with her husband and daughter.

Sophie Gilmore is an author and illustrator of books, mostly for children. She works always with pen, sometimes with watercolor. Gilmore’s 2022 The Sea in the Way was praised by Kirkus as “dreamy, smart waves of love, longing, listening and learning.” She lives and works in South London.

Hannah Salyer has a deep reverence for the natural world that was fostered while growing up on the east coast of the US. She brings that wonderment to her work as an award-winning illustrator, author, educator, mixed media artist, and gallery director. Salyer’s 2023 Ancestory: The Mystery and Majesty of Ancient Cave Art was described as “vivid…mesmerizing…intriguing” by Kirkus and as “visually stunning” by Publishers Weekly.

Dena Seiferling writes and illustrates children’s books with a soft spot for animals and nature. She graduated with a BFA from Alberta College of Art and Design where she now teaches. Her drawings are created mainly through graphite pencil as well as digital media. Seiferling also creates and exhibits needle-felted sculpture and dioramas. Her illustrations for Night Lunch was recognized as A New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book of 2022.

Bruno Zocca was born in Verona, studied illustration and graphic design at ISIA in Urbino, and now lives and works in Bologna. Zocca’s zany and fanciful illustrations are populated with characters and creatures who live in a parallel universe where the laws of nature don’t seem to exist. He makes his drawings with ink line and colors them with gouache or by mixing traditional and digital coloring. In 2014, his works were selected at the Illustrators Exhibition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, where he also won the Ars In Fabula Grant Award. His illustrations for Mio Nonno Gigante, written by Davide Calì, won the 2019 Premio Letteratura Ragazzi Award.

Terry Fan (The Fan Brothers) received his formal training at Ontario College of Art & Design in Toronto, Canada. His work is a blend of traditional and contemporary techniques, using ink or graphite mixed with digital tools. He spends his days (and nights) creating magical paintings, portraits and prints. Born in Illinois, he now lives in Toronto, near the shores of Lake Ontario, which he likes to imagine is the sea. Terry is the co-creator of award-winning picture books such as The Night Gardener, Ocean Meets Sky, and The Barnabus Project.

Eric Fan (The Fan Brothers) is an artist and writer who lives in Toronto, Canada. Born in Hawaii, and raised in Toronto, he attended the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he studied illustration, sculpture, and film. He writes and illustrates picture books along with his brother Terry, and sometimes his brother Devin (collectively known as the Fan Brothers). Their books include The Night Gardener, It Fell From the Sky, Lizzy and the Cloud, and The Barnabus Project, which won the 2020 Governor General’s Award for Young People’s Literature – Illustrated Books.

Rashin Kheiriyeh is an internationally recognized, award-winning illustrator-author, animator, and painter who has 22 years of experience in publication and broadcasting. She has internationally published over ninety children’s books, including Welcome Home by Aimee Reid and Story Boat by Kyo Maclear, a Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year. She was born in Khorramshahr, Iran, and now lives in Washington, DC.

Eliza Wheeler is the author-illustrator of A Cozy Winter Day, Home in the Woods, and the New York Times bestselling picture book Miss Maple’s Seeds. She has also illustrated numerous books for children from picture books to middle grade novels. She uses a wide range of media–from traditional pen & ink, watercolor, and mixed media to fully digital art. Her picture book work often falls into two genres; joyful, bright picture books, and historical, biographical stories with a big heart. Eliza grew up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, lived for a time by the hills of Los Angeles, and now lives near the lakes of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Elisha Cooper received a Caldecott Honor in 2018 for Big Cat, Little Cat, and his following book River won the 2020 Robin Smith Picture Book Prize. One of his earlier books, Dance!, was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books of the Year, and Beach won the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal. His essays and sketchbooks have appeared in the New York Times. Cooper lives with his family in New York City.

Jenni Desmond lives and works in east London UK. Her books have been featured as a best book of the year in The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and The Guardian, amongst others. Her book The Polar Bear was a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book. She mostly works on books using watercolour, ink, acrylic paint, crayons, drypoint and photoshop. She also enjoys working in clay, printmaking, and textile designs. She likes to experiment and do new things to keep her work fresh and her practice fun.

Yuyi Morales is the author and illustrator of many books for children, including the New York Times bestseller Dreamers.  She is a seven-time winner of the Pura Belpré Award for an outstanding work of literature for children that best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience. Other honors include the Americas Award, the Golden Kite Medal, the Christopher Award, the Jane Adams Award, and the Tomas Rivera Award. In 2015, she received the Caldecott Honor for her book Viva Frida.

Richard Egielski has illustrated over fifty books for children, eight of which he both wrote and illustrated. He studied the art of the picture book with Maurice Sendak at the Parsons School of Design. In 1976, he teamed up with author Arthur Yorinks, and together they created nine picture books, including HEY AL, for which he was awarded the 1987 Caldecott Medal by the American Library Association.

Marc McChesney was born in Bilthoven in the Netherlands and walked the path of illustrator as well as fine artist, painting hundreds of large canvases and panels throughout his life. He worked as an assistant to master printmaker Gary Lichtenstein at his studio in Connecticut, learning the art of the serigraph. Profoundly affected and emboldened by a mentorship and friendship with Maurice Sendak, McChesney devoted himself to the art form of the picture book. With no formal training, McChesney was always intent on expressing honesty through his work. He spent his days drinking tea, listening to piano sonatas, and creating strange little books intended for strange little hands.

Doug Salati is the author and illustrator of Hot Dog, winner of the 2023 Caldecott Medal and the 2023 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award. The first book he illustrated was In a Small Kingdom by Tomie dePaola, and the second, Lawrence in the Fall by Matthew Farina, was a 2020 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award honoree. Doug lives and works in New York City.

Stephen Savage is a New York Times bestselling children’s book illustrator and author whose accolades include a New York Times Best Illustrated Book for Polar Bear Night and a Geisel Honor for Supertruck. In addition to books, he illustrates for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, and Entertainment Weekly. He’s taught illustration at the School of Visual Arts since 2001 and lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn with his wife, daughter and two dogs.

Harry Bliss grew up in upstate New York in a family of working artists. He has been a staff cartoonist and cover artist for the New Yorker magazine since 1997 and his single panel cartoon, ‘Bliss’ has appeared in newspapers internationally since 2005. He has published 25 books for children, including six New York Times bestsellers. Amazon Studios turned three of his books with author Doreen Cronin into an animated series called ‘Bug Diaries’. His chosen medium is graphite, ink, and watercolors. Bliss lives in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Nora Krug is a critically acclaimed German-American author and artist. Her books are published in 20 countries, and her illustrations have been recognized with gold and silver medals by the Society of Illustrators and the NY Art Directors Club. Her visual memoir Heimat / Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, about WWII and her own German family history, was chosen as a best book of the year by the New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, Kirkus Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. Krug is Associate Professor of Illustration at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.

Jessica Ahlberg came to illustrating children’s books after deciding, like her mother, that teaching was not for her. She is the daughter of the acclaimed children’s book-creating partnership, Janet and Allan Ahlberg. She was a great inspiration to her parent’s work, and is the baby featured on the back cover of Peepo! With Janet and Allan. Jessica has now illustrated several books written by her father including Goldilocks, Half a Pig and The Boy, The Wolf, The Sheep and the Lettuce. 

Ian Andrew animated a short film called Dolphins while at the Royal College of Art in London. It was shown at many festivals around the world and was used by Greenpeace in a campaign to create sanctuaries for wild dolphins around the British Isles. He worked in animation studios around London, most notably TVC, and was involved in the making of Father Christmas. His first children's book, Lion & The Mouse, was shortlisted for the Mother Goose Award. This was followed by Back to the Blue, a collaboration with Virginia McKenna and the Born Free Foundation. Other illustrated titles include, The Kin by Peter Dickinson, shortlisted Carnegie Medal, and The Boat by Helen Ward, shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Award. More recently he was involved with a project about The Silk Road published by Old Dungate Press created by Amanda Wood.

Marc Rosenthal is an editorial illustrator and The New York Times best-selling illustrator of many children’s books, including All You Need is Love written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the Small Walt series written by Elizabeth Verdick, and the Bobo series written by Eileen Rosenthal. He has also published two books as author and illustrator, Phooey and Archie, and The Pirates. 

Sara Varon is an author and illustrator of graphic novels and children’s books. Sweaterweather & Other Short Stories was a 2004 Harvey Award nominee for Best Graphic Novel. Her highly praised 2007 Robot Dreams became an Oscar-nominated animated feature film in 2023. Some of her other titles include The Detective Sweet Pea Series, New Shoes, Bake Sale, My Pencil and Me, and Odd Duck. Sara grew up in the midwest and recently returned to Chicago after living in New York City for 21 years.

Gerardo Blumenkrantz ventured to the US from Argentina right after high school, with a suitcase full of local folk tales and Jewish guilt. His work is an excuse to explore all sorts of emotions through the deceptively light-handed lens of humor. He believes his work stands a better chance of touching people if it first invites them to chuckle. He works on the creative side of advertising and lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Tor Freeman was born in London, and graduated from Kingston University with a BA in Illustration in 1999. She has been working as a freelance illustrator, author and comics-maker since that time. In November 2017 she was the winner of the Observer/Cape/Comica graphic short story prize. Her books include "The Toucan Brothers", the "Olive" series and the comic "Welcome to Oddleigh". In her spare time she makes pottery, sews and walks her dog Rusty.

Alice Lickens is an award-winning author and illustrator whose work has been published around the world. She studied illustration at Kingston University, graduating in 2010 and has since worked extensively in publishing. Alice has a passion for the museums and galleries sector and has worked for the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, previously the House of Illustration, for over a decade.

Ali Bahrampour grew up in Iran and the US. His first book was Otto: The Story of a Mirror. His 2022 Monsters in the Fog was noted by The Horn Book Magazine as “dramatically composed, full of humor, and punctuated with mysterious glowing fog. A book that is perfect for storytime.” He lives in New York City.

Frann Preston-Gannon  is a London based author and illustrator. She has worked on nearly thirty books for children. Her books have been translated to many different languages and have been turned into puppet plays and adapted for the orchestra. She is also the co-owner of The Paper Cat - an independent children's bookshop in Herne Hill, London. She lives in South London with her partner, two children and two rascal cats called Chaos and Mayhem.

Sergio Ruzzier is a picture book author and illustrator. He was born in Milan, Italy, in 1966 and began his career as an illustrator in 1986. Sergio has written and illustrated many picture books, including Fox and Chick: The Party, a 2019 Geisel Honor Book; Fish and Wave, a 2023 Geisel Honor book; Two Mice, and more. After many years in Brooklyn, NY, he now lives in a very old house in the Apennine Mountains in northern Italy.

Denise Saldutti Egielski grew up in the suburbs of central New Jersey.  She studied the art of picture books with Maurice Sendak at Parson's School of Design in New York City.  Living in Greenwich Village she illustrated book jackets, album covers, magazines, and children's books. Denise now lives in Hunterdon Country alongside the Delaware River.  For several years she taught children's book illustration at the Hunterdon Museum of Art. Currently, Denise is a gardener for a small gardening company, a print maker, painter, and uses many mediums including digital sketches.  Her source of inspiration comes from her neighborhood and the natural world around her.  Denise's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums and she is now working on a few books for children; "City Snow,” "For Sythia,” and a book about the "sad little windmill", the only windmill in Holland Township.

Antoinette Portis received a BFA at the UCLA School of Fine Arts and then spent years in the world of design and advertising. She made her picture-book debut with the New York Times best-selling Not A Box, an American Library Association Seuss Geisel Honor book, and one of the New York Times Ten Best Illustrated Books of the Year. She lives in Southern California and reads and draws with kids in local school classrooms.

Aaron Renier was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin. He has been drawing comics, in one way or another, for as long as he can remember. His illustrations have appeared in a wide variety of places, including turning an entire city bus into a moving aquarium. He won the Eisner award for cartoonist deserving wider recognition for his first graphic novel, Spiral-Bound.

Paul Schmid studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. He has worked within a multitude of creative endeavors, including as an art director, illustrator, designer, essayist, fine artist, and an award winning author-illustrator of 14 picture books for children, including A Pet for Petunia, Oliver and his Alligator, and Hugs from Pearl. Paul lives surrounded by volcanoes near the shores of Puget Sound.

Rowboat Watkins is mostly a dad who likes to tell stories and draw. He shares a studio with 5 amazing picture book makers in an old sweater factory, and lives with his family in Brooklyn, NY. His 2019 book Most Marshmallows was praised as “exquisite” by the New York Times and “extraordinary…splendid and smile-inducing” by Booklist.