Making Friends with Monsters: A Dialogue with Picture Book Artists

Making Friends with Monsters: A Dialogue with Picture Book Artists

Date: 6 October 2023 (Friday)

Time: 7 PM - 8: 10 PM (HKT)

Platform:Zoom

Picture book artists:

Manuel Marsol (Spain)

Lam Kin Choi (HK)

Waterbear (HK)

Moderator: Jeffrey Clapp (Director of One City One Book HK)

Language: English

*The Zoom link will be provided to registered participants before the event.

Description:

One City One Book Hong Kong is a community reading initiative that encourages as many people as possible to read the same book at the same time. This year, in addition to its central selection, Bison, a short story collection by Hong Kong writer Xubin, we will celebrate Yōkai, a picture book by the Spanish illustrator Manuel Marsol. Both books focus on the relationships among people, animals, and the natural world. In Yōkai, a lorry driver who stops in the mountains has a series of transformative encounters with spirits of the forest. In this event, Manuel Marsol will talk about Yōkai and the art of his picture books to start a dialogue with Lam Kin Choi and Waterbear, two young picture book artists in Hong Kong.

Bio of the artists:

Manuel Marsol (馬努葉爾・馬爾索)

Born in Madrid in 1984, Manuel Marsol is an illustrator and writer mainly focused on the creation of picture books. He has a degree in Advertising and Audiovisual Communication. In 2017 he received the International Illustration Prize of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. The winning illustrations are part of the picture book Yōkai (2017), which was co-written with Carmen Chica. The book was translated into Chinese by Ye Shu-yin and published by Locus Publishing in 2019.

Manuel Marsol’s homepage: https://www.manuelmarsol.com/

Lam Kin Choi (林建才)

Kinchoi Lam is an award-winning artist based in Hong Kong. He completed his Master's degree in Children's Book Illustration at Anglia Ruskin University in 2020. With his first picture book, "Little big tram", he won the First Prize in the Creative Writing in Chinese Award in 2016, and also the Hong Kong Publishing Biennial Award in 2019. His other illustration works have won the Batsford Prize in the UK, and were selected for the German White Raven Award and Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustration Award. Lam's illustration works combine traditional printmaking and digital collage, to record and spread stories through images, breaking through the boundaries of language and regions. His publication includes Nomads, Life on the Move (2022), The Unexpected Journey of Little Star (2022), Journey to Mars (2021), Boar Bakery (2020) and Little Big Tram (2017).

Kinchoi’s homepage: https://www.lamkinchoi.com/

Waterbear (水熊阿蟲)

Waterbear is an illustrator and media artist based in Hong Kong. He graduated from the School of Creative Media City University of Hong Kong in 2014, while his first shot animation film “Swamp” has received the Special Mention at the 20th ifva Festival (Animation Category) and Best of the Show in SCM Annual. In 2019, his published his first self-financed picture book “The Ear Mite and the Cat Who Hears Colours” in Hong Kong. In 2020, his second picture book “Oh Yeah! I have an idea” has won the publication award in “Let’s Less Movement” organised by the School of Everyday Life in Hong Kong. Focusing on his creation of picture books and illustration career, he also teaches how to make handbinding picture books. (Instagram: waterbeargulu)