FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: IBBY Canada is delighted to announce that Soyeon Kim is the 2021 Joanne Fitzgerald Illustrator in Residence. The residency program will be hosted online by Toronto Public Library for the month of October.

Soyeon Kim is a Korean-born artist and educator who came to Canada in 2000.  For publishers Owlkids Books, Orca Books and Inhabit Media, Soyeon has illustrated picture books that include You Are Stardust (winner of the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award), Wild Ideas, Sukaq and the Raven, A Last Goodbye, and Once Upon an Hour. For her illustrations Soyeon creates three-dimensional dioramas that merge fine sketching and painting techniques with meticulous construction techniques. A graduate of York University’s Fine Arts program, Soyeon’s art practice has encompassed exhibitions in various galleries and group shows, a residency at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, and school visits for art workshops based on her picture books.

During IBBY Canada’s Illustrator in Residence online program in October, Soyeon will offer hands-on art activities for classes of school children, evening workshops for adults on topics related to working as an illustrator, presentations to students in high schools and colleges, and portfolio reviews with artists and art students.

The Joanne Fitzgerald Illustrator in Residence Program, launched in 2013, offers a published children’s book illustrator a month-long residency in a public library. Honouring the life Joanne Fitzgerald (1956–2011), whose children’s books include Plain Noodles, Emily’s House, and Doctor Kiss Says Yes (winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award), the program is a joint project of IBBY Canada, Toronto Public Library, the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, and the Young family. The previous illustrators are Martha Newbigging (2013), Patricia Storms (2014), John Martz (2015), Dianna Bonder (2016), Ashley Barron (2017), Nahid Kazemi (2018), and Diego Herrera/Yayo (2019).

Toronto Public Library (TPL) is the world’s busiest urban public library system, with more than 46 million annual visits to its branches and online. TPL empowers Torontonians to thrive in the digital age and knowledge economy through easy access to technology, lifelong learning, and diverse cultural and leisure experiences, where, when and how customers need. To learn more, visit tpl.ca, email Answerline at answerline@tpl.ca or follow TPL on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and subscribe to email updates.

IBBY, the International Board on Books for Young People, was founded in 1953 and represents an international network of people committed to bringing books and children together. IBBY Canada, one of over 80 IBBY national sections worldwide, is a volunteer organization promoting quality English, French and Indigenous Canadian children’s literature nationally and internationally. To become a member of IBBY Canada, please join us here.

For more information, please contact:
Allison MacLachlan
Promotions Officer, IBBY Canada
promotions@ibby-canada.org