Longlist announced for the 2018 Klaus Flugge Prize

Fifteen debut picture books in the running for important illustration prize, now in its third year.  Children’s Laureate Lauren Child joins 2018 judging panel
@KlausFluggePr #KFP18

Established in 2016, the Klaus Flugge Prize is awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s book illustration. It honours publisher Klaus Flugge, founder of children’s publisher Andersen Press and a supremely influential figure in picture books.

This year more than fifty books were submitted for consideration; fifteen have made the longlist. Walker Books dominate with three titles on the longlist while Templar and last year’s winning publisher Flying Eye Books each have two. In total 11 publishers are represented including independents Childs Play and Barrington Stoke.

The judges for the 2018 prize are award-winning illustrator and Waterstones Children’s Laureate, Lauren Child; leading designer and art director Goldy Broad; Charlotte Colwill, head of children’s books at Foyles; and last year’s winner Francesca Sanna. The panel will be chaired by Julia Eccleshare, director of the children’s programme of the Hay Festival.

Julia Eccleshare said: “We are very pleased that this year’s Klaus Flugge Prize attracted the highest number of entries yet and delighted to be putting these fifteen highly talented illustrators into the spotlight. From dragons to paper boats, a public swimming pool to Mars, the range of subjects and settings is hugely varied; techniques used to tell the different stories on our longlist range too from watercolour, lino-cut and two-colour screen printing to collage and skilful use of Photoshop. Klaus Flugge has always sought out and published illustrators from across the world and this is reflected in our longlist. Alongside illustrators born and based in the UK are those from the US, South Africa, Argentina, Japan, Russia and Bulgaria and it is fitting that this is such an international line up of artists.”

The 2018 Klaus Flugge Prize longlist in full:

Jabari Jumps, Gaia Cornwall, editor Tanya Rosie, art editor Deirdre McDermott (Walker) Leaf, Sandra Dieckmann, editor Harriet Birkinshaw, art editor Camille Pichon (Flying Eye) Cranky Caterpillar, Richard Graham, edited by Roger Thorp and Anna Ridley (Thames & Hudson) Beyond the Fence, Maria Gulemetova, editor Sue Baker, art editor, Annie Kubler (Child’s Plays) Woolf, Patrick Latimer, written by Alex Latimer, editor Neil Dunnicliffe, art editor Lee-May Lim (Pavilion) The Night Box, Ashling Lindsay, written by Louise Greig, editor Melissa Fairley, art editor Tiffany Leeson (Egmont) My Name is Not Refugee, Kate Milner, editor Emma Hargrave, art editor Julie-Ann Murray (Barrington Stoke) Curiosity: The Story of a Mars Rover, Markus Motum, editor Denise Johnstone-Burt, art editor Louise Jackson (Walker Studio) Hortense and the Shadow, Lauren O’Hara, written by Natalia O’Hara, editor by Andrea MacDonald, art editor Anna Billson (Puffin) The Real Boat, Victoria Semykina, written by Marina Aromshtam, editor Katie Howarth, art editor Genevieve Webster (Templar) Fergal is Fuming, Robert Starling, editor Libby Hamilton, art editor Rebecca Garill (Andersen Press) Big Hid, Roisin Swales, editor Harriet Birkinshaw, art editor Camille Pichon (Flying Eye) Magnificent Birds, Narisa Togo, editor Alice Primmer, art editor Charlie Moyler (Walker Studio) Big Box, Little Box, Edward Underwood, editor Emma Blackburn (Bloomsbury) Dino, Diego Vaisberg, editor Carly Blake, art editor Genevieve Webster (Templar)

The shortlist will be announced on 16 May 2018 live at a special evening event at Foyles Charing Cross Road and the winner will be revealed on 12 September 2018.
For more information, interview requests and images contact Andrea Reece andrea.reece@zen.co.uk 020 8889 1292/ 07807893369 www.klausfluggeprize.co.uk

The judges
Lauren Child is an award-winning writer and artist. She is the creator of many much-loved characters, including Clarice Bean, Ruby Redfort and Charlie and Lola. Her books have sold over 15 million copies worldwide. In October 2005, the BBC launched a 78-part animated series of Charlie and Lola. The series has won four BAFTAS and is aired in more than 34 countries.  In 2008 Lauren launched UNESCO’s ‘My Life is a Story’ Campaign for UNESCO’s Programme for the Education of Children in Need, and was named a UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2008.  She was awarded an MBE for Services to Literature in 2010, and was announced as the 10th Waterstones’ Children’s Laureate in 2017.  Lauren is an international ambassador for the excellence of UK illustration: she’s been at the forefront of innovation for 15 years and has raised the profile of illustration as a sophisticated art form for all ages. She works with mixed media, pioneered text as an integral part of illustration and collaborates with artists across different fields. She is a trustee of the House of Illustration.

Goldy Broad is a hugely respected and influential art director and book designer specialising in picture books and books for pre-school children. Now freelance, she has worked at Puffin and with illustrators including Helen Oxenbury and Lauren Child.

Charlotte Colwill has been a full time bookseller and bookshop manager, in London and Melbourne, since finishing her Masters Degree in Publishing in 2010. She has worked at Waterstones, Blackwell's, Daunt Books, Readings (Australia) and Slightly Foxed and is currently the Head of Children's Books at Foyles on Charing Cross Road.

Francesca Sanna grew up in Italy and is currently based in Zurich, Switzerland. Her book The Journey won the 2017 Klaus Flugge Prize. It has been translated into 14 languages, and has been awarded with the gold medal of the Society of Illustrators (US) and the Premi Llibreter (Spain). It was shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal and won the Amnesty CILIP Honour 2017.

Klaus Flugge

Klaus Flugge was born in Hamburg in 1934, apprenticed to a bookshop and sent to Book Trade School in Leipzig. He emigrated to America at the age of 23 as an East German refugee who spoke only German and Russian. After a variety of jobs, and two years as an American GI, he was offered a job working as a Personal Assistant to Lew Schwartz, owner of Abelard-Schuman publishing in New York. After only a year and a half Schwartz suggested he go to Europe to build up the very small list they had there and came to London in 1961. He launched Andersen Press – named after Hans Christian Andersen - in the autumn of 1976.

The roll call of artists Klaus Flugge has worked with at Andersen Press reads like a textbook on illustration: David McKee, Tony Ross, Satoshi Kitamura, Michael Foreman, Susan Varley, Emma Chichester Clark, Sir Quentin Blake, Chris Riddell, Ruth Brown and David Lucas to name but a very few.

In 1999, he became the first publisher to receive the Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding contribution to children’s books and in 2010 he became the first and so far only publisher to be awarded Honorary Membership of the Youth Libraries Group. In 2013 Klaus was made an honorary citizen of the City of Bologna in recognition of his commitment to children's books abroad.

Andersen Press is one of the world’s leading independent children’s publishers, publishing some of the biggest names in children's books including the much-loved picture book characters the Little Princess and Elmer the patchwork elephant. Andersen Press is the
home of many award-winning authors and illustrators including Melvin Burgess, Rebecca Stead, Satoshi Kitamura, Tony Ross, David McKee, Chris Judge and Jeanne Willis.
The Klaus Flugge Prize is funded by Klaus Flugge and run independently of Andersen Press. It is administered by Julia Eccleshare, children’s director of the Hay Festival and head of Public Lending Right policy and advocacy; by Anne Marley co-director of Authors Aloud UK and former head of Children’s, Youth & Schools Services for Hampshire Library & Information Service; and Andrea Reece, reviews editor at Lovereading4kids, managing editor of Books for Keeps, and children’s director of the FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival.