Luciano Lozano

Born in 1969. A self-taught artist, he has been working as an illustrator since 2007, after completing a Postgraduate Degree in Creative Illustration at the Eina School in Barcelona.

Selected in 2025 for The BRAW Amazing Bookshelf at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair with Santiago Saw Things Differently, originally published in the United States by Candlewick Press, and finalist for The Cook Prize, which honors outstanding books in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. Also ed for The Original Art 2023 exhibition by the New York Society of Illustrators.

In 2024, he published Un niño en la playa (A Boy on the Beach), as both author and illustrator, with Akiara Books in Spain and Portugal. The book was awarded by Banco del Libro as one of the best fiction titles and recommended by the Cuatrogatos Foundation in 2025.

In the same year, 2024, he received the Fundación Cuatrogatos Award for La vaca que confundió a su pájaro con un sombrero (The Cow Who Mistook Her Bird for a Hat), published in Spain by Tres Tigres Tristes, for which he is also both author and illustrator.

In 2021, he published Tancho with Akiara Books in Spain and Portugal, as author and illustrator. The book was a finalist for the Cuatrogatos Foundation Award and nominated for the Premio Andersen in Italy for Best Book for Ages 0–6, where it was published by L’Ippocampo Ragazzi. It was also released in France by Les Éditions des Éléphants, where it won Le Prix des Incorruptibles in 2023.

In 2017, he published his first picture book as both author and illustrator, Bea baila (Bea Dances), with Tres Tigres Tristes. The book has been published not only in Spain but also in Italy, France, Russia, the USA, Turkey, Korea, Portugal, and Brazil.

In 2012, he won the Junceda Award, granted by the Catalan Association of Illustrators, for Operation Alphabet, published by Thames & Hudson in several countries, recognized as the best book published abroad.

He regularly collaborates with numerous publishing houses, including Walker Books, Abrams, Bayard, Kodansha, Tres Tigres Tristes, and Flamboyant.

He currently lives in Barcelona.

Vitor Martins

(Brazil, 1991)

Writer and translator. He is the author of the book Here the Whole Time (2017), whose rights have been sold to several countries, such as the United States, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Conspiração Filmes will soon publish an audiovisual adaptation of this book in cinema. He also wrote Um milhão de finais felizes (2018) and Se home 8 falasse (2021), finalist of the 2022 Jabuti Prize. 
He believes that diversity in young adult literature is a powerful weapon, and his main goal as a writer is to tell stories about people who have never been able to see themselves reflected in a book. His most recent book, Mais ou menos 9 horas (2024), addresses the metaphorical and literal journey of a protagonist forced to deal with grief, the past and his own feelings.

Other activities involving the participant:

Destinação Brazil

Rocío Bonilla

Invitado de Honor

Rocio Bonilla is a children’s book author and illustrator based in Barcelona. She holds a degree in Fine Arts and has worked in various fields such as photography, mural painting, education, and advertising—an area that kept her away from drawing for twelve years.

In 2011, she discovered editorial illustration by chance, and in 2014, she began writing her own stories, publishing Cara de pájaro, her first picture book as both author and illustrator. A year later, she released ¿De qué color es un beso? (What Color Is a Kiss?), the work that launched her onto the international publishing scene.

To date, she has published more than seventy illustrated books, some as a solo creator—such as La montaña de libros más alta del mundo (The Highest Mountain of Books in the World), ¡Hermanos! (Siblings!), Gracias. Historia de un vecindario (Thanks: The Story of a Neighborhood), and La pandilla de los 11 (The Gang of Eleven)—and others in collaboration with authors including Susanna Isern (El gran libro de los superpoderes / The Great Book of Superpowers), Elisenda Roca (Una gran familia / One Big Family), Eulàlia Canal (Los fantasmas no llaman a la puerta / Ghosts Don’t Knock on Doors), and Meritxell Martí (El consultorio de la señora Ánser / Mrs. Goose’s Advice Clinic).

Her picture books have received numerous national and international awards, including the Premio Crítica Serra d’Or, the Premio Libro Kirico, the Prix du Livre Vivant, and finalist distinctions in the Little Hakka Awards and the Young Readers Golden Medal (California).

She was ed in 2018 by the Fundación Cuatrogatos, and her work was featured at the Bratislava Biennial of Illustration (2019) and at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair (2021), where it was included among the one hundred best books for early childhood.

Minimoni is her most beloved and recognizable character. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages worldwide. Her latest literary adventure takes her into children’s fiction with the series Lucas Kent & Greta Rouge, which she also illustrates.

Other activities involving the participant:

The album in Barcelona

Sol Ruiz

She studied Fine Arts at the Alonso Cano University in Granada, where she specialized in illustration and painting, and later in pictorial restoration.

She worked for several years as an exhibition curator and heritage restorer, and she currently combines her illustration work with teaching at the visual arts academy ArtePintura.

In the field of illustration, she has carried out numerous projects in advertising and, in 2019, began her career in publishing. In 2021, she released her first picture book as both author and illustrator, Mucho, published by Narval, which has also been released in Korea and was ed by OEPLI among the best picture books of that year.

Luciany Aparecida

(Brazil, 1982)

She was born in Bahia, in Vale do Jiquiriçá. She is a professor, researcher, writer of novels, short stories, dramatizations and poems, as well as a doctor of literature from the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). In the field of literary criticism, the author's studies deal with literary theory, contemporary literature, the interface between history, memory, ancestry, afro-diaspora, immigration, nation and performances.
She is the author of Mata Doce, winning novel of the São Paulo Literature Prize 2024, finalist of the Jabuti Prize and semifinalist of the Oceans Prize 2024. She also wrote Macala and Joanna Mina. She has published short stories and novellas under the pseudonym Ruth Ducaso.

Other activities involving the participant:

São Paulo Prize for Literature
Latin America Viva

Vitor Martins

(Brazil, 1991)

Writer and translator. He is the author of the book Here the Whole Time (2017), whose rights have been sold to several countries, such as the United States, Russia, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Mexico and the United Kingdom. Conspiração Filmes will soon publish an audiovisual adaptation of this book in cinema. He also wrote Um milhão de finais felizes (2018) and Se home 8 falasse (2021), finalist of the 2022 Jabuti Prize. 
He believes that diversity in young adult literature is a powerful weapon, and his main goal as a writer is to tell stories about people who have never been able to see themselves reflected in a book. His most recent book, Mais ou menos 9 horas (2024), addresses the metaphorical and literal journey of a protagonist forced to deal with grief, the past and his own feelings.

Other activities involving the participant:

Connecting Talents: Collaborative Experiences in Illustrated Books

Valéria Valls

I hold a PhD and a master's degree in Communication Sciences, as well as a bachelor's degree in Library and Information Science from the School of Communications and Arts at the University of São Paulo (ECA/USP). My academic training is complemented by university extension studies in teaching from the Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV), and with specializations in educational technology, hybrid teaching, and pedagogical innovation from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC).
I currently hold the presidency of the Board of Directors of SP Leituras - Paulista Association of Libraries and Reading.

Other activities involving the participant:

São Paulo Prize for Literature