JESSICA LOVE NAMED WINNER OF THE KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE 2019 FOR JULIAN IS A MERMAID

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Jessica Love is the winner of the 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize. Set up in honour of veteran publisher, founder of Andersen Press Klaus Flugge, the prize is for the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. Jessica won for her book Julian is a Mermaid (Walker Books), in which a little boy riding the New York City subway with his nana dreams of looking like the spectacularly dressed women they see – and ends up joining the iconic Mermaid Parade.

Jessica Love, who lives in New York, was unable to collect her award in person but sent a filmed message in which she declared herself ‘devastato’ to be unable to be there in person. She explained that for the past five years, she has been ‘a hustling out of work actor, waiting tables, babysitting’ while creating the book and that winning the award felt ‘like being accepted at Hogwarts’. She paid tribute to ‘the extraordinarily talented young female illustrators’ working at the moment, and picked out her fellow shortlisted illustrators Sam Boughton, Eve Coy, Emily Haworth-Booth, Fifi Kuo and Marie Voigt, describing their books as ‘complex, moving, funny, deep’. She also praised Klaus Flugge for his extraordinary commitment to illustrators and children’s book illustration: ‘I want to thank Mr Klaus Flugge for creating this award. Your commitment to seeing an artist's vision through to the end is a rare and precious thing and we are so lucky to have you as a champion. This prize feels like a hand reaching out and hoisting you up onto the first rung of a ladder and that boost is more meaningful than I can say.’

Audrey Keri-Nagy, Art Director of Walker Books accepted the award on Jessica’s behalf from Anthony Browne.

Fifi Kuo, who lives in Taiwan, was also unable to be there, but the four other shortlisted illustrators attended, together with inaugural winner of the Klaus Flugge Prize Nicholas John Frith. Fifi was represented by her publisher David Bennett of Boxer Books.

Alongside Anthony Browne, the judges were Derek Brazell, of the Association of Illustrators, BillieJo Carlisle of Seven Stories bookshop, Farrah Serroukh of CLPE and 2018 Klaus Flugge Prize winner Kate Milner. Julia Eccleshare, director of the Children’s Programme at the Hay Festival, is Chair of the Judges.

The 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize shortlist in full

The Extraordinary Gardner, Sam Boughton (Tate)

Looking After Daddy, Eve Coy (Andersen Press)

The King Who Banned the Dark, Emily Haworth-Booth (Pavilion Children’s Books)

I Can’t Can Fly, Fifi Kuo (Boxer Books)

Julian is a Mermaid, Jessica Love (Walker Books)

Red and the City, Marie Voigt (Oxford)