Luisa Uribe is an illustrator and designer of children’s media. She graduated as a Graphic Designer from the National University of Colombia and has an MA in Art and Design from Loughborough University. In 2018 she was awarded the SOI Dilys Evans Founder’s Award for The Vast Wonder of the World. Other recent publications include Your Name is a Song, My Town/Mi Pueblo and My Brother Is Away. She lives in Bogotá, Colombia with her partner and two cats.
Penelope Dullaghan grew up playing outside, swimming in lakes and drawing pictures. She still loves all those things today, and now it’s her job to make pictures! When she’s not working in her home studio, she’s usually homeschooling her daughter (who wants to be an artist when she grows up, too), going camping in the woods or trying to get things to grow in her garden. Her website and blog can be found at www.penelopedullaghan.com.
Carlie Sorosiak lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and her American Dingo, Dany. A bestselling children’s author, her fiction titles include Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Month, I, Cosmo, as well as My Life as a Cat and Always, Clementine. She has a master’s in English from Oxford University and another in publishing from City, University of London, and she currently volunteers at a cat shelter (just don’t tell Dany!). She wrote this book in honour of every dog she’s ever loved.
Isabelle Follath is a freelance illustrator living in Zurich, Switzerland with her husband and daughter, where she creates pictures for books and many other things. She loves drawing all sorts of characters, mixing colours and drinking an alarming amount of coffee. When she is not illustrating you can find her searching for the perfect vintage nib or trying rearrange her watercolours of which she has far too many.
Grace Habib graduated with BFA in Illustration at Columbus College of Art and Design, Ohio, USA. After graduating, she started working at a greeting card company as a kids card designer.
Soon after, she found her passion as a children’s illustrator. In her free time she enjoys nature parks, visiting local bakeries, and coffee shops. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, USA with her husband and daughter.
Katherine Woodfine has been reading and writing for as long as she can remember. She still has the first ‘book’ she ever wrote, aged 6 – an action-packed mystery entitled ‘The Robbers Who Stole the Crown Jewels’. Fittingly, her first published book, the Sunday Times bestseller The Clockwork Sparrow (2015) was also a mystery featuring a daring jewel theft.
Following on from her debut, Katherine has written seven more historical mysteries in the Sinclair’s Mysteries and Taylor & Rose Secret Agents series, following a pair of intrepid Edwardian young lady detectives. She is also the author of a number of books for younger readers, including Sophie Takes to the Sky illustrated by Briony May Smith, Elisabeth and the Box of Colours illustrated by Rebecca Cobb, and A Dancer’s Dream illustrated by Lizzy Stewart.
She has contributed to a number of short story anthologies including Winter Magic and Make More Noise. In 2017 she was chosen as one of Hay Festival’s Aarhus 39 – a selection of the best children’s and young adult writers from all over Europe aged 40 and under.
Katherine lives in Lancashire, close to an old castle, with her family and two black cats.
Born in Warwickshire, Richard Jones has been living and working in Devon for over 20 years. After leaving university with a first class degree in graphic design and illustration, he stayed on a little longer to complete a PhD.
He spent several years working in a busy children’s library, issuing and shelving other artists’ picture books, before one day wondering if it wasn’t about time he had a proper go at creating one or two himself!
Richard now writes and illustrates from the smallest room in his home. Across the roof tops of Exeter, and between the rounded Devon hills, he can just about make out the distant sparkling sea.
Jonathan Emmett worked as an architect before becoming a children’s author and novelty book designer, which may explain the inspiration behind Alphabet Street, a novelty book in the form of a street elevation.
Jonathan is the author of over sixty books, including Bringing Down the Moon and The Princess and the Pig and his work has been translated into over thirty different languages. He likes building things and taking things apart, playing games and solving puzzles and letting his imagination run riot.
You can find out more about Jonathan and his books at his website: jonathanemmett.com
Sara Ogilvie was born in Edinburgh and now lives in Newcastle. She graduated with an Illustration/Printmaking degree from Edinburgh College of Art. Sarah has won numerous awards for her work including a Commonwealth Heads of Government commission, presented to Nelson Mandela and HRH Queen Elizabeth II. Her work is inspired by words, street life, antiquities, posters, old wives tales, household appliances, carpets, masks, trying to spell sounds, packaging and old second-hand bookshops…
Alexandra Beever has been a detective with Thames Valley Police for 15 years. Following a science degree at university, she competed at the Olympics and won a gold medal at the World Championships as part of the GB Rowing Team.
After seven years as a full-time athlete, a career in policing appealed to Alexandra as it combined her interests in law and supporting others to make better life choices with her passion for the outdoors, being active and working as part of a team.
Once the work day has finished, Alex enjoys spending time with her daughter, their miniature dachshunds, Boo-Boo and Coconut, and pony George. She also loves taking trips to the seaside and catching up with friends.
Kevin and Kristen Howdeshell are a husband-and-wife illustration team known as The Brave Union. Kevin and Kristen began collaborating over ten years ago on their senior thesis stop-motion animation, “A Very Hairy Christmas.” (A werewolf Christmas story, of course). Since then, they’ve started a studio and taken on the freelance world of illustration working on projects for magazines, packaging, t-shirts, music albums, and, their absolute love, children’s books.