Daniela Iride Murgia is a visual artist with a degree in Oriental Art and a Master in Illustration. She stood out for prizes and awards such as: Selection at Illustrarte 2012, Portugal. Mention at the V Compostela International Prize for Picture Books, Spain. A la Orilla del Viento Award 2012, FCE, Mexico. Caniem Award, National Chamber of the Mexican Editorial Industry 2013. Selection at Illustrarte 2014. Finalist at Premio Andersen, Italy 2015. Premio Rodari 2017, Italy.
Brigitte Minne was born in Bruges in 1962. She studied foreign languages and worked a few years for the New Zealand embassy in Brussels. She has worked as a scenario-writer and director of several television programs for children. Since her last book came out in 1993, Albertine verwacht je, she’s had a very prolific career. She has won many prizes, especially given by Children's Juries, such as the Children's Jury Flanders, the French Children's Jury, and the Dutch Children's Jury.
Anna Masini was born in 1981, on a summer day. She lives and works in Milan as an illustrator. She designs, writes and draws picture books and covers, and illustrations for press and magazines. She also collaborates as a textile designer with different Italian ateliers. She mostly works with soft pencils, gouaches, ink and hand printing techniques, such as woodcut and silkscreen, although she’s never forgotten her first love: photography.
Gioconda Belli was born in Managua, Nicaragua. She has received international awards such as Premio Mariano Fiallos Gil; Premio Casa de las Américas; Premio Internacional Generación del 27; Premio Internacional Ciudad de Melilla. Her first novel, La mujer habitada (1988), which was translated into fourteen languages and sold more than one million copies, was given Premio de los Bibliotecarios, Editores y Libreros as the best detective story of the year, and Anna Seghers Award from the German Academy of Arts.
Giulia Mirandola has a degree in Conservation of Cultural Heritage. She worked with Ubulibri, Zanichelli, Hamelin Associazione Culturale. She curated Catalogone Topipittori since its first issue. In 2012 she published her contributions in Ad occhi aperti. L'albo illustrato (Donzelli) focusing on world-less and coloring books. Her research into picture books is mainly directed to word-less books and books for very little children. She is involved in formation programs for reading picture books, both for children and adults.
Maria Lai was born in 1919 in Ulassai, Sardinia. Her encounter with professor and writer Salvatore Cambosu, to whom she was linked by a deep, strong friendship, was pivotal for her formation as an artist. In 1939 she moved to Rome and then to Venice where she studied Fine Arts with Arturo Martini. After the second world war, her works have been exhibited in museums, galleries and biennales, being awarded and appreciated internationally.
Nadia Budde was born in 1967 in Berlin, where she lives and works as an illustrator. She studied Visual Communication Studies at the Kunsthochschule Berlin-Weißensee. In 2008 she was Visiting Professor at the Hochschule für Kunst und Design Burg Giebichenstein, and since 2005 she has been given various teaching assignments, lectures, workshops at home and abroad. From 2013 to 2015, she did artist residencies in Kyrgyzstan, India and Italy.
Niece of Sigmund Freud, Tom Seidmann-Freud (pseudonym of Marta Freud), is one of the greatest names of German children’s literature from the 20's. After studying fine arts, she choses a male pseudonym and starts creating a unique, surreal fictional world, made of clear lines and bright colours. She publishes her first book at 22 and in 1920 she marries the writer Jankew Seidmann in Berlin. She writes and illustrates several picture books where ideal dream and phantasmagoria play a key role.
Nata in un piccolo paesino delle campagne trevigiane, fin da piccola è stata attratta dal disegno e dal pasticciare con le proprie mani con forme e colori, caratteristica non attenuatasi con l'età. Dopo la maturità artistica ha intrapreso il corso in Disegno Industriale dell'Università IUAV di Treviso fino alla specializzazione in Comunicazioni Visive e Multimediali.
Marianna Merisi is a landscape architect who gathers together either a wide botanical knowledge and uncommon talent in drawing. In 2015 she was awarded with Premio Lavinia Taverna, a prominent prize dedicated to women working in the fields of gardening and landscape. She graduated at Milan Politecnico with a thesis on “Pioneer Plants: a urban regeneration project”. Since 2010 to 2016 she collaborated with Cooperativa Sociale Cascina Bollate, inside the jail premises in the outskirts of Milan, a nursery-garden where unusual plant species are grown.