BIG Curators

Germany – Internationale Jugendbibliothek / International Youth Library

The Internationale Jugendbibliothek (International Youth Library), based in Munich, is the world’s largest library for international children’s books. Its unique collection consists of more than 660,000 books in 250 languages spanning six centuries. The book holdings and historical collections are available to researchers from around the world for scholarly use. The library’s central task is to promote global children’s and youth literature of high aesthetic and literary quality and of significance for cultural literacy.

Reina Nakano

An anglicist and translator, Reina works at the International Library of Children’s Literature, Tokyo, and as the International Youth Library’s Japanese language specialist.

Young-Eun Chang

Young-Eun holds a PhD in German Literature from the Otto-Friedrich-Bamberg University in Germany and is a Professor in the Department of German Language & Culture at Sookmyung Women’s University, Seoul. She is an Advisory Board Member for Korean Research Center for International Children’s & Adolescent’ Literature in Seoul. She is specialized in comparative study about German and Korean children’s Books. Her interests include reading and teaching children’s literature.

Lucia Obi

Lucia has been working in academic libraries, and also as a freelance illustrator and editor in the children's publishing industry. Trained in Cultural Anthropology, Chinese Literature, Art and the Library and Information Sciences, she is now the language specialist for Chinese and Korean children's literature at the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany.

India - Priya Kuriyan

Priya Kuriyan is a children's book writer-illustrator, comics maker and chronic doodler. She has directed educational films for the Sesame street show (India) and the Children's Film Society of India (CFSI) and has illustrated numerous children's books for publishers like Tulika Books, Penguin, Scholastic and Hachette to name a few. She has contributed to Indian comics anthologies like Pao, This Side That Side, Eat the Sky Drink the Ocean and First Hand 2 (an anthology of non-fiction comics). In 2019, she won the 'Big Little Book Award' instituted by the Parag initiative of Tata Trusts to recognize her contribution to children’s literature in India. Her most recent children's picture book 'Beauty in Missing' was published by Pratham Books, India. She lives and works in the city of Bangalore and in her spare time makes funny caricatures of its residents.

Japan - Chihiro Art Museum

The Chihiro Art Museum is considered the world’s first art museum devoted to picture
books. Established in 1977 to commemorate Chihiro Iwasaki (1918-1974), a Japanese picture book artist renowned for her works of children and flowers, it now has a collection of over 27,200 pieces created by 207 artists from 34 countries worldwide. There are two museums; one in Tokyo and one in Nagano (Azumino) which are run by the Chihiro Iwasaki
Memorial Foundation.

Eriko Tanabe

Since 2012, Eriko has worked at the Chihiro Art Museum looking after public relations, the museum website, and editing the museum newsletter. She is in charge of workshops and events and has instructed local students to conduct watercolour workshops and museum tours. Eriko has also has managed Piezograph exhibitions in hospitals and in institutions abroad in India, Korea, and Indonesia.

Michiko Matsukata

Since 2003, Michiko has worked at the Chihiro Art Museum as a curator and is also currently responsible for the library, PR, and international section. She has curated exhibitions such as the Polish Picture Book Artists, Eun Young Cho, Run, Toto!: The Making of a Picture Book, and Kota Taniuchi Exhibition: Follow the Wind. Besides reading, Michiko enjoys walking about.

Malaysia - Linda Lingard

Linda Tan Lingard is the founder and publisher of Integra Creative Media Sdn Bhd (ICM), a children’s book publisher based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The company’s 10-year–old imprint, Oyez!Books, is one of the country’s leading picture book publishers. Linda’s publishing and communications career spans 30 years, with roles in editorial, marketing, and production. It was her interest in education, art and licensing that drove her to found the YGL Management licensing agency in 2009 and the Museum of Picture Book Art, Malaysia, in 2021.

Philippines - Beth Parrocha

Beth is a book illustrator who has been locally recognised several times by the National Children's Book Awards' Best Reads.

Internationally, she was awarded the Samsung KidsTime Awards (2016), the grand prize of the AFCC Children's Book Award (2017) and the first prize in the Indie Children's Book Cover Award (2021) in the US.

Singapore – David Liew

When he’s not illustrating books like Eliza Teoh’s Ellie Belly and Hwee Goh’s Change Makers, David can be found building miniature worlds in unattended drawers. In-between this artistic mayhem, he teaches at local art colleges and polytechnics. If adequately incentivised he’ll admit to illustrating Pippa Chorley’s Eye Spy series and Melanie Lee’s The Adventures of Squirky the Alien as well.

South Korea - Korea national section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY KOREA)

To fulfill IBBY’s mission, KBBY works as a network of professionals from both home and abroad, collecting and sharing information on children’s and juvenile literature. KBBY also works in close partnership with the other national sections of IBBY to contribute to promoting cross-cultural exchange in children’s literature.

­­­KBBY organizes international book exhibitions in collaboration with library networks, in efforts to share with the Korean audience the information on global books generated through the awards and activities of IBBY. Moreover, KBBY is committed to providing information on outstanding Korean children’s and juvenile literature with readers across the world.

The curating team is made up of members of children’s literature specialists who works in charge of introducing Korean picture books and artists.

Choi Hyun-kyoung

Choi Hyun-kyoung has been working as a picture book editor in Noran Sangsang Books. She also give lectures at a picture book workshop.

Lee Hyang

Lee Hyang is the children’s book editor of Kinderland Publishing. She writes children’s nonfiction or can be found doing lectures at a picture book workshop.

Noe Jeungmin

Noe Jeungmin is the director of the Hyundai Museum of Kids’ Books & Art-MOKA. She received a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa, focusing on art education.

Park Chanseok

Park Chanseok works as a chief editor at Springsunshine Publishers and has been in charge of the planning, drafting and editing of children's books for many years. She has also translated several children’s books.

Vietnam - Turine Tran

Turine Tran, a Vietnamese born multi-award-winning artist, takes inspiration from children, companionship, and nature.

Since 2001, she has been pursuing art in Singapore, U.S, France, and U.K. In 2015, she came back to Singapore to research in visual storytelling and earned a PhD in the field.

COF Việt Nam Gallery

Pham Thi Hoai Anh

Pham Thi Hoai Anh is an independent children's picture book author and the founder of Vietnam's ICBC (Initiative of Children's Book Creative content). Through ICBC, Hoai Anh spearheads diverse educational programs and art activities, including visual art exhibitions, reading concerts, and drama performances. Passionate about reading with children, she strives to enrich their artistic experiences and spread the joy of reading, considering it a vital responsibility as a children's book author.