Enquiries
Wholesale - email me at katereadillustration@gmail.com for an access code
Book Illustration - I am represented by Hilary Delamere at The Agency - please click here
About Kate
Kate Read is an award winning children's book illustrator and writer based in Norfolk, UK.
She gained an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin in Cambridge (2018)
Kate originally trained as a Theatre Designer at Wimbledon School of Art and subsequently Textiles at Morley College in London
photo by Beth Moseley
Illustrations made by hand
I have always loved playing with paper, back when I studied textiles I spent all my time dyeing, stitching and cutting up paper into intricate shapes. I drew on it and constructed three dimensional shapes using dressmaking techniques and enjoying the textures and happy accidents.
Now I do the same, painting cutting, dyeing, printing and drawing to create textures to illustrate picture books.
Every image starts with drawing so I can work out the shape and personality of the animal or person I am illustrating. I really enjoy observational drawing but it’s playing with paint, scissors and glue that I really enjoy and that is when my work starts to come alive. I try to embrace mistakes as a sign of creation by human hands and incorporate them into my work.
Author Visits
Do you need your shop window painted with a Fox, Fish or an Elephant? Great!
Picture books signed? Fantastic! Craft activities for children and story time? Yes! Then, get in touch! I love to get out of my studio and spread my enthusiam for picturebooks.
AWARDS
Winner of the Teach Early Years Awards, 2021
One Fox shortlisted for the UKLA book awards, 2021
Awarded Arts Council Creative Development Grant, May 2021
Winner of the Mathical Book Prize, 2020
Shortlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize, 2020
Shortlisted for the Waterstones Childrens Book Prize, 2020
Ezra Jack Keats Honouree, 2020
Shortlisted for The Cambridgeshire Libraries 'Read it Again Award' 2020
Shortlisted for the 'Queen's Knickers 'Award, the Society of Authors, 2020
New York Public Library recommended list, 2019
Winner of the Cybils Awards - Fiction Picture Book, 2019
Awarded a Kirkus Star for One Fox, 2019
Gold Award from the Parent's Choice Foundation, 2019
Winner of SCWBI Undiscovered Voices, 2018
Student teacher on the Cambridge School of Art Children's Book Illustration Summer School, 2018
Shortlisted for the Batsford Prize and Picturehooks, 2018