Anne-Kathrin Behl, born in 1983, has illustrated and written many children’s books since 2009. With her mother having a bookstore, she has always loved children’s books and, as soon as she could draw and write, Anne made her own little books and wished to become a professional children’s book illustrator. She studied Illustration at the HAW in Hamburg and later moved to Celle, a little town in northern Germany, where she now lives with her husband and her two sons.
Carlie Sorosiak lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and her American Dingo, Dany. A bestselling children’s author, her fiction titles include Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month, I, Cosmo, as well as My Life as a Cat, Always, Clementine and Shadow Fox. 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 is the author of A World of Dogs and its follow-up A World of Cats.
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.
Kieran Larwood was born in Kenya. He moved to the UK when he was 2 and lived in various places before settling on the Isle of Wight where he can still be found: exploring rockpools, climbing trees and writing – slowly disappearing behind a mountain of notebooks and empty coffee mugs. He taught Reception class in a primary school for fifteen years before becoming a full-time author.
Kieran’s books have won several awards, including the Blue Peter Best Story and the Prix Sorcières.
He is inspired by a life-long love of fantasy stories, which all began when – as a young boy – he picked up a copy of The Hobbit and saw the map inside. It just goes to show – you never know where opening a book will lead…
Joe Todd-Stanton grew up in Brighton, England, and was taught to draw by his mother, who is also an illustrator. He studied at UWE Bristol, receiving a first class degree in Illustration. Todd-Stanton has been commissioned to work for clients such as Oxford University Press, Usborne Publishing, and Aquila magazine. His work has been highly
praised and his book The Secret of Black Rock was longlisted for The C ILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2018 and won a 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
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.
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.
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.
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…