An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Marcos Guardiola of Spain. Image: BCBF
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Winners’ List: 80 Artists, 28 Countries
Celebrating its 60th edition this year, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (March 6 to 9) has opened its season with its customary announcement of the winners of its Illustrators Exhibition competition.
Now in its 57th year, itself, the exhibition received work from 4,345 participants from 91 countries and territories). In fact, they sent in a total 21,725 illustrations, which were processed to a shortlist of 315 for the jury to handle.
From that shortlist, 79 sets of illustrations were chosen, representing the work of 80 artists from 28 countries and territories.
The 2023 Jury
An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Sadeghian Noushin of Iran. Image: BCBF
The jurors for this year’s competition are:
- Gustavo Rosemfett, Argentina and Spain, teacher, illustrator, and author, a winner of the Bologna Ragazzi Award 2016 in the special category dedicated to disability for the book Mallko and Dad
- Christine Morault, France, founder of Éditions MeMo
- Sidney Smith, Canada, author and illustrator, winner of two Kate Greenaway Awards
- Eric Telfort, United States, illustrator, artist and teacher of digital illustration and character design at Rhode Island School of Design
- Erik Titusson, Sweden, former director of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, founder of Lilla Piratförlaget, an independent children’s book publisher
The Illustrators Annual, the exhibition catalogue is published by Corraini in Italian and English; by JBBY, the Japanese Board on Books for Young People, in Japan; by CCOC in Korea; and by Dandelion Picture Book House in China. It’s available at specialist international bookstores.
In addition to reproductions of the illustrations, the catalogue also includes original articles by the jurors. The cover is illustrated on alternate years by either the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award or the winner of the Grand Prix BIB (the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava). This year, it’s the turn of Suzy Lee, winner of the Andersen Award 2022, who will also have a personal exhibition at the center of the fair in March.
The Bologna Trade Show’s Structure
An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Rahele Bell of the United States. Image: BCBF
As for Bologna Children’s Book Fair this year, it is, as Publishing Perspectives readers know, a three-part presentation in its 60th year:
- The core event is the traditional fair. Bologna Children’s Book Fair, directed by Elena Pasoli and based on attendance patterns prior to the onset of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, can be expected to draw something close to 30,000 trade visitors and 1,500 exhibitors, organizers say, from roughly 100 world markets.
Bologna Book Plus, a co-located conference and training program for a more generalist element of the international book business (beyond children’s books, in other words), was established in 2020 and is directed again by Jacks Thomas.- The Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids is, as our international readership knows, a presentation by as many as 600 or more brands, with a retail lounge and product showcase for licensing and entertainment operators.
In addition, as you’ll remember from our announcement story in September, the rights-trading component of the program, called the Global Rights Exchange, is to open its offer to the adult trade publishing sector as well as to those working i the children’s and young adults’ content areas.
2023 Illustrators Exhibition Winners
An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Colaneri Giovanni of Italy. Image: BCBF
On selection, all illustrators under 35 automatically become candidates for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair/Fundación SM International Illustration Award, consisting of a year’s scholarship worth €15,000 (US$16,287). During that year, the winner creates and publishes a picture book, the illustrations of which are then exhibited in a personal show at the subsequent edition of the fair.
| Illustrator’s Last Name | Illustrator’s First Name | Nation/Territory |
| Akerman | Emma | Sweden |
| Alvarez | Pablo | Argentina |
| Antinori | Andrea | Italy |
| Aoki | Takako | Japan |
| Aparicio Català | Anna | Spain |
| Avramova | Ksenia | Russia |
| Barker | James | United Kingdom |
| Bell | Rahele | USA |
| Benetti | Cathy | Switzerland |
| Bomfim | Flávia | Brazil |
| Cerocchi | Beatrice | Italy |
| Chen | Wei Hsuan | Taiwan |
| Colaneri | Giovanni | Italy |
| Cosmos | Golden | Germany |
| Dan | Yan | China |
| De Telleria | Maria Jose | Argentina |
| Dipacho | Colombia | |
| Dostalova | Petronela | Slovakia |
| Drobova | Yuliya | Uzbekistan |
| Ekboir | Laila | Argentina |
| Fan | Yuqin | China |
| Fonseca Armando | Mijangos Amanda | Mexico |
| Gereke | Vera | Germany |
| Goldoozian | Alireza | Iran |
| Guardiola | Marcos | Spain |
| Guevara | Santiago | Colombia |
| Herba | Gosia | Poland |
| Hu | Diandian | China |
| Huang | Liang-Hsin | Taiwan |
| Iribertegui | Idoia | Spain |
| Jönsson | Maria | Sweden |
| Kim | Seungyoun | South Korea |
| Kimura | Yumi | Japan |
| Kolb | Alice | Switzerland |
| Lee | Kyung Kug | South Korea |
| Leung | Wai Yan | Hong Kong – China |
| Lin | Forest Xiao | China |
| Litkei | Julianna | Hungary |
| Macaigne | Jeanne | France |
| Mahy | Jess | United Kingdom |
| Majewski | Marc | France |
| Melece | Anete | Latvia |
| Méndez | María Elina | Argentina |
| Mirdita | Luise | Germany |
| Montoya Escobar | Manuela | Colombia |
| Moreira | Henrique | Brazil |
| Mottaghi | Anita | Iran |
| Mun | Jeongin | South Korea |
| Oklejak | Marianna | Poland |
| Oliveira Viegas | Inês | Portugal |
| Pan | Hsinping | Taiwan |
| Phillips | Benjamin | United Kingdom |
| Plavinskaya | Polya | Russia |
| Rosende Gutierrez | Maite | Spain |
| Ruiz Johnson | Mariana | Argentina |
| Runde | Aleksandra | Latvia |
| Sabu Ward | Sachie | Japan |
| Sadeghian | Noushin | Iran |
| Samel | Pamela | Estonia |
| Sangiò | Lorenzo | Italy |
| Shin | Ami | South Korea |
| šiklová | Tereza | Czech Republic |
| Sobral | Catarina | Portugal |
| Su | Li | China |
| Suzuki | Tomoko | Japan |
| Tanco | Miguel | Spain |
| Terasawa | Chieko | Japan |
| Turdera | Cristian | Argentina |
| Tveritina | Yulia | Ukraine |
| Undritz | Fanny | Germany |
| Virardi | Liuna | Italy |
| Wang | Chunhua | China |
| Wang | Minru | China |
| Wu | Peng | China |
| Xu | Yalan | China |
| Yu | Tongtong | China |
| Zakeri Younesi | Majid | Iran |
| Zakharova | Ekaterina | United Kingdom |
| Zhang | Xiaoyang | China |
Notes on the Arts in Fabula Grant
An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Cathy Benetti of Switzerland. Image: BCBF
The winner of the 2022 award, Andrés Lòpez, from Mexico, will be showing his solo exhibition at the 2023 book Fair. In addition, every year the Ars in Fabula School of Illustration makes available the Ars in Fabula Grant Award to an unpublished illustrator under 30 among those selected for the Illustrators Exhibition. The grant offers the opportunity to attend the Ars in Fabula Masters in Illustration for Publishing, working on a book project assigned by one of the partner publishers.
The grant award, which celebrated 10 years of activity last year, will be the subject of an exhibition in 2023 at the Fair, presenting the work of the 10 winners of the past editions.
An illustration by Bologna Children’s Book Fair Illustrators Exhibition winner Takako Aoki of Japan. Image: BCBF
We expect that the next competition news from Bologna Children’s Book Fair will be about the Bologna Ragazzi award program.
More from Publishing Perspectives on publishing and book awards in the international industry is here. More on Bologna Children’s Book Fair is here, more on children’s books is here, more on the Italian market is here, and more on world publishing’s trade shows and book fairs is here.