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  New England Writers' Centre

2021 Illustration Prize Winners

Congratulations!
The New England Writers' Centre is proud to announce the winners for this year's Illustration Prize, with three wonderful awards and national recognition.
Download the 2021 Illustration Prize Results Press Release
File Size: 828 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

This year's theme was "A Message In a Bottle"​

The calibre and artistic merit of the entries this year was very high. All submissions were anonymous and our judges were asked to score on each entry for artistic merit, how well the artwork fitted the theme, and suitability for children's book publishing.
Quick links
Meet the Winners
Commended entries
Meet the Judges
Feedback from the judges 
​This collection of entries was very impressive and varied, both in the subjects portrayed and the medium used by the artist. There was a large range of artistic talent, most of them addressing the theme imaginatively and with considerable child appeal, which is an element of illustration that is high on my list. It’s also good if an illustration shows immediate appeal and invites the viewer to look deeper for the story portrayed.  ​Many of these illustrations depicted appealing character interaction and invited closer inspection and viewer involvement.
 The illustrations submitted would appeal to a wide range of readers and age levels.​ There were some terrific entries in the competition, and some really interesting and original treatments of the theme.
​
​There were some standout compositions, with loads of wonderful characters, humour, texture and stories going on.  I loved the sweetness and heart of many of these responses, and those entries that demonstrated a deft cartooning style.

...and the winners are...

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​First Prize
​A cash prize of $350 and a portfolio assessment by United Publishers of Armidale, plus one follow-up.
Sponsored by The United Publishers of Armidale

Goes to Shelley Knoll-Miller
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Supporting Children's Book Publishing in the  wider community
Picture
Copyright Shelley Knoll-Miller
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Shelley's submission was a clear winner by score for all key areas of artistic merit, fitting the theme and concept.
Judges comments:
  • Detailed characters invite repeated inspection of different homes. Well drawn, good layout and colour palette.
  • Spectacular illustration. Wonderful characters, setting and composition. Loads of life, terrific storytelling and world-building.
  • The critters are well drawn. Nice concept!

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Second Prize
A voucher to the value of $250 to be used for books or prints listed on the Books Illustrated website.
​Sponsored by Books Illustrated

Goes to Louis Decrevel
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Promoting Australian picture books and book illustration
Picture
Copyright Louis Decrevel
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Louis' submission was highly rated for style and humour.

Judges comments:
  • Love the humour!
  • Fun storytelling and deft cartooning style; conveys great personality and movement
  • An interesting perspective on the theme. Well done image.

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Third Prize
​One year's Associate Membership of SCBWI and $25 voucher for art supplies (or cash prize of equal value $150).
Sponsored by Havenslee Studio

Goes to Triandhika Anjani
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Business support for creative entrepreneurs
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Copyright Triandhika Anjani
(Click on the image to enlarge)
Triandhika's submission rated highly for beautiful colouring and appealing concept.
Judges' comments:
  • Lovely colours and composition; beautiful linework.
  • Appealing seascape with sunset colours.
  • Nice colouring and concept.

Meet the Winners

Shelley Knoll-Miller (VIC)
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​Shelley Knoll-Miller has worked as a cartoonist for over twenty years including with The Melbourne Age. She illustrated her first picture book in 2018, for Scholastic. In 2020, Shelley was awarded a place on the the Maurice Saxby Mentorship program and the ASA Style File Illustrator Award. She is currently writing and illustrating a series of 4 picture books, to be released by Penguin Random House in 2023.

Her main goal as an author-illustrator is to make enough money to employ someone to write her bios for her (because talking in the third person is weird and sometimes confusing).

Shelley lives in a strawbale home that she built with her husband, and juggles creative work with raising three children, and growing a large permaculture garden. 

Louis Decrevel (SA)
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Writer/Illustrator Louis Decrevel (pron. Louie Decra-vel), lives on a hobby farm in the beautiful Inman Valley, South Australia, where he and his wife homeschool their nine hilarious children.

He won the Faber Writing Academy Scholarship in 2021 for Writing for Children, and was runner up for the Book Links Mentorship 2021 for a middle grade fantasy novel. He has a Master of Visual Art & Design [Illustration] from UniSA. His Master’s thesis, Word and Picture at Play, explores how text and images interact in picture books.

His family’s adventures provide endless inspiration for his stories, poetry, comics and art. He is working on humorous action-adventure and fantasy stories and picture books that explore childhood and family life.

www.louisdecrevel.com

Triandhika Anjani (ACT)
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I’m originally from Indonesia and studied illustration in Japan, but now I live in Canberra and working remotely as an illustrator.

​I love reading children’s picture book ever since I was small, and always dream of making illustrations for stories. The sky, the light, and nature landscapes are my sources of inspiration as well as artworks from various children’s picture books.

You could view the illustrations I made on my website at www.triandhikaanjani.com or on my instagram page @triandhikaanjani

Commended

The response to the 2021 Illustration Prize was outstanding with many imaginative and well crafted submissions. The judges were hard put to make their final selection. Below are those entries that were highly commended (click on the images to enlarge).  Congratulations to everyone!  

Meet the Judges

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Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton AM has had many years experience in children’s books — as a children’s librarian, a bookseller, a publisher and as a parent.
​In 1987 she left her position as director at Hodder & Stoughton Australia to begin Margaret Hamilton Books with her husband Max. The company built up a reputation for high quality children’s books and was dedicated to the philosophy ‘that children have a right to the best of everything, especially books’. 
Margaret Hamilton Books won many awards and had considerable success on the world market. It became a Division of Scholastic Australia in 1996, where the imprint remains. Margaret’s passion for picture books, her enthusiasm for the world of Australian illustrators, and her recognition of the need for wider promotion of picture books, led her ten years ago to establish Pinerolo, the Children’s Book Cottage at Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. Her own extensive collection of books and original artwork provide the nucleus of this centre.
--
www.pinerolo.com.au


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Paul Collins

​Paul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specialises in science fiction and fantasy. Collins has written many books for younger readers. He is best known for his fantasy series, The Jelindel Chronicles, and The Quentaris Chronicles, and his science fiction series, The Maximus Black Files. Paul’s latest book due Feb 2022 is James Gong: The Chinese Dragon. Paul is also the founder and publisher of Ford Street, an independent Australian publisher which publishes between twelve to fifteen titles a year, ranging from picture books through to novels and non-fiction for older readers. 
He is also the founder of Creative Net Speakers' Agency, showcasing some of the authors and illustrators he now publishes including some of Australia's best-known authors and illustrators such as Leigh Hobbs, Isobelle Carmody, George Ivanoff, Gabrielle Wang, Andrew Plant and Adam Wallace.
--

fordstreetpublishing.com
creativenetspeakers.com
paulcollins.com.au

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--
www.nickigreenberg.com

Nicki Greenberg

Nicki Greenberg is an award-winning writer and illustrator of more than thirty books including novels, picture books and graphic novels. Her first series of picture books was published when she was fifteen years old. She later spent ten years disguised as a lawyer while maintaining a not-so-secret Other Life as a comics artist and children’s book author. Nicki’s innovative graphic adaptation of The Great Gatsby was a White Raven at the Bologna Book Fair, and her adaptation of Hamlet was joint winner of the 2011 Children’s Book Council of Australia Picture Book of the Year award. 

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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the lands on which the New England Writers' Centre is situated and pay our respects to Aboriginal Elders past, present and emerging.
  • Home
  • Illustration Prize for Children's Picture Book Publishing
  • Thunderbolt Prize for Crime Writing
  • Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
  • About
    • Our Board
    • Our Sponsors
  • Membership
  • Contact Us
  • 2022 Archive
    • 2022 Summer Micro Grants >
      • 2022 Summer micro grants_Mary McMillan >
        • 2022 Summer micro grants_Kerry Moran
    • 2022 Illustration Prize for children's picture book illustration
    • 2022 Thunderbolt winners >
      • 2022 Thunderbolt Prize winning submissions
      • 2022 Thunderbolt Prize Judges Reports
    • 2022 Varuna-NEWC Fellowship
  • 2021 Archive
    • 2021 Illustration Prize Winners
    • Varuna Fellowship 2021
    • Thunderbolt Prize 2021 >
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2021 Judges Reports
    • 2021 Summer Micro Grants >
      • 2021 Summer micro grants_Trish >
        • Beetle Hunt Stories
      • 2021 Summer micro grants_James
      • 2021 Summer Micro Grants_Fiona
  • 2020 Archive
    • Thunderbolt Prize 2020 >
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2020 Judges Reports
      • Thunderbolt Prize 2020_Winning submissions
    • Illustration Prize 2020 Winners
    • Varuna Fellowship 2020
    • 2020 Historical Novel Prize
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Inside Story Book
    • By The Book video series
    • Stories Connect