COLLABORATORS
Authors, ilustrators, translators
Yael Frankel
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Yael Frankel is an author and illustrator born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1967. She has been published in France, Italy, Spain, China, South Korea, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina—and now the United States. Her books won several awards, including White Ravens 2015 and 2020, Premio Fundación Cuatrogatos 2016, and ALIJA IBBY Argentina 2017. Her illustrations for the book The Elevator was the winner at the 2019 Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival, United Arab Emirates. This same book won a laureate for Best Picture Book at the 2019 International Children’s Book Fair, Russia.
Alcides Villaça
AUTHOR
Alcides Villaça is a poet and literary critic who was born in Atibaia, São Paulo, in 1946. Since 1973 he has been a professor in Brazilian literature at the University of São Paulo. His research focuses on modern Brazilian poetry with an emphasis on the works of Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Manuel Bandeira, Ferreira Gullar, and João Cabral de Melo Neto. He also studies the work of Machado de Assis, who is regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature. His volumes of poetry include O tempo e outros remorsos (1975), Viagem de trem (1988), and Ondas curtas (2014). As a literary critic, he wrote Passos de Drummond (2006), the result of decades of research on the work of the poet from Minas Gerais, Brazil. He is a regular contributor to newspapers such as Folha de São Paulo and O Estado de São Paulo. The Invisible is the English edition of his first book for young readers.
Andrés Sandoval
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Andrés Sandoval, born in 1973 in Chile, is an illustrator and graphic artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. He graduated in Architecture and Urbanism at the University of São Paulo in 1999, after which he began working in scenography and cinema. Since 2003, he has developed much of his work in books, prints, and murals. He has been illustrating the section Esquinas in the Brazilian magazine Piauí since 2006. He has created prints and patterns for brands such as L’Occitane, Melissa, and Coca-Cola. His illustrations have been published by Companhia das Letras, Cosac Naify, Editora 34, Planeta Tangerina, Pato Lógico, and the New Yorker, among others.
Guilherme Karsten
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Guilherme Karsten was born and lives in Blumenau, Brazil. In 2010, he won a national contest for new children’s books illustrators and has been working with editorial illustrations since. His illustrated books have been translated into fourteen languages. Guilherme has been awarded several prizes, including a Golden Pinwheel Grand Award and a Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava Plaque, both for his illustrations of Aaahhh! in 2019. In 2021, he has won the Jabuti Award, the prestigious literary Brazilian prize by the Brazilian Book Chamber.
Sol Undurraga
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Sol Undurraga is a former architect from Santiago, Chile who has recently devoted her life to illustration. She has been selected twice for the Bologna children's book fair, twice for Latin American Illustration, and works internationally with publishers around the world. Sol currently lives in Berlin.
Kit Maude
TRANSLATOR
Kit Maude is a translator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He has translated dozens of Latin American and Spanish writers for a wide array of publications and writes reviews for Ñ, Otra Parte, and the Times Literary Supplement.
​
Eric M. B. Becker
TRANSLATOR
Eric M. B. Becker is the award-winning writer, editor, and literary translator of more than a dozen books. He is the recipient of fellowships and residencies from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fulbright Commission, and the Louis Armstrong House Museum. In 2014, he earned a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant for his translation of a collection of short stories by 2015 Man Booker International finalist Mia Couto. He was also a finalist for the 2020 PEN Translation prize with Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida's That Hair. He is a frequent guest at international literary festivals, co-founder of the Pessoa Festival, and has delivered lectures and workshops around the world on the translation of Portuguese-language literature from Brazil, Portugal, and Lusophone Africa. Aaahhh! is his first translation of a book for children.
​
Flávia Rocha
TRANSLATOR
Flávia Rocha is a Brazilian journalist, writer, and filmmaker, based in Portland, Oregon. She has three books of poetry published in Brazil: A Casa Azul ao Meio-Dia (Travessa dos Editores, 2005), Quartos Habitáveis (Confraria do Vento, 2009), and Um País (Confraria do Vento, 2015). She holds an MFA in Writing/Poetry from Columbia University, and for thirteen years was an editor for the New York–based multimedia literary magazine Rattapallax, which focuses on international literature. Her poems, translations, and articles have appeared in several publications in the United States, Brazil, and other countries.
Endi Bogue Hartigan
TRANSLATOR
Endi Bogue Hartigan is a poet based in Portland, Oregon. She is the author of the books of poetry Pool [5 choruses] (Omnidawn Publishing, 2014), which won the Omnidawn Open prize, and One Sun Storm (Center for Literary Publishing, 2008), which won the Colorado Prize for Poetry. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including New American Writing, West Branch, Interim, Chicago Review, VOLT, Denver Quarterly, and others.
María José Ferrada
AUTHOR
María José Ferrada was born in Temuco, Chile. Ferrada’s children’s books have been published all over the world. She has been awarded numerous prizes and is a three-time winner of the Chilean Ministry of Culture Award. Her previous works include Niños, Mexique and El idioma secreto (The Secret Language), which won the Orihuela Prize.
​
Mariana Alcántara
ILLUSTRATOR
Mariana Alcántara Pedraza was born in Mexico City in 1991. She has won the 29th Illustrator’s Catalog at the 2019 Encuentro Valladolid Ilustrado International Children’s and Young Adult Book Fair in Spain, and 3rd Prize at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in 2018. Her work was included in The White Ravens Catalogue in 2019.
Ana Penyas
ILLUSTRATOR
Ana Penyas was born in Valencia (Spain), in 1987. She has a degree in Industrial Design and Fine Art from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. Penyas’ illustrations won several prizes including a Fnac-Salamandra International Graphic Novel Prize and a Josep Toutain Prize for Best New Talent at the International Comic Fair of Barcelona. She was the first woman to win the National Comic Award of the Ministry of Culture of Spain. Her illustrations of her neighborhood are the winner of the Iberoamérica Ilustra Catalog 2016.
Patricia Strauch
AUTHOR
Patricia Strauch was born in the city of Buenos Aires in 1978. She attended the University of Buenos Aires and is a certified public translator. Motherhood first brought her into contact with children’s literature, first through reading and later writing. In addition to There’s a Monster in the Kitchen, she has also published the books Emma va a la selva, and ¿Por qué dormimos?, published by Tres en Línea and Una Luna, respectively.
Natalia Aguerre
ILLUSTRATOR
Natalia Aguerre is a graphic designer who studied at the University of Buenos Aires. She sees illustration as her primary means of communication. In addition to illustrating There’s a Monster in the Kitchen, she also illustrated Una caja de libros, published by Superpoder Editorial. Her artistic training began from a very young age with courses given by Cristian Turdera and Marcos Farina. She has given workshops on fanzines and illustrations at secondary schools, the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism (FADU, University of Buenos Aires), and at cultural centers. She currently teaches experimental illustration for the Roldán Course at the FADU.
Nani Brunini
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Nani Brunini was born in São Paulo, Brazil, in 1976. She studied Fine Arts at the University of São Paulo, Industrial Design at UFPE in Recife, and has a master’s degree in Design Management from Cambridge University. After working on design research and strategies for ten years, she returned to brushes and pencils and now illustrates posters, packaging, icons, and websites. Disagreement is her debut book, originally published in Portugal and now in North America.
Ana Matsusaki
ILLUSTRATOR/AUTHOR
Ana Matsusaki was born in São Paulo and has a degree in graphic design from the Centro Universitário Belas Artes. Since 2015, she’s worked as an illustrator and book designer. In 2019 and again in 2021, her work was selected for inclusion in the Catálogo Iberoamérica Ilustra, which features the most important names working in illustration in the region. Her work has also been selected for the 2021 Biennial of Illustration Bratislava. The Collector of Heads is her debut book, originally published in Brazil, and a finalist of the 2021 Jabuti Award.
Bruna Dantas Lobato
TRANSLATOR
Bruna Dantas Lobato is a fiction writer and literary translator based in St. Louis. Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, Guernica, A Public Space, The Common, and other publications, and it has been recognized with fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Jentel, A Public Space, NYU, and Disquiet International. Her recent translations include Caio Fernando Abreu’s Moldy Strawberries, Stênio Gardel’s The Words That Remain, and Giovana Madalosso’s Tokyo Suite.