Emma Lidia Squillari

Emma Lidia Squillari is an Italian-American illustrator living and working in Bologna. Some of Emma’s most exciting childhood memories are of opening boxes of books that her grandparents had sent on Christmas morning. That is how she discovered some of her favorite stories, like Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad series and a particularly beloved cassette tape of Maurice Sendak’s Nutshell Library. Artists that she had no idea were famous until her studies at Bologna’s Fine Arts Academy. Her thesis project was a picture book she wrote and illustrated titled Alle in den Garden!, and was published by Atlantis in 2018. She is the author and illustrator of La baignade (Grasset Jeunesse, 2021), a tender and giggly chapter book about friendship, courage and overcoming obstacles big and small, I dispettosi (Terre di Mezzo, 2021), featuring and naming one hundred birds, Dans l’Oeuf (Seuil Jeunesse, 2019), a book about a snake with no manners at all but with a very large appetite, winner of the Prix Atout Lire 2020 and shortlisted for the Prix Bernard Versele 2021. She also illustrated Devo dirti una cosa by Israeli author Eshkol Nevo (Salani, 2022) and Alice in Wonderland (Eli Greenwich, 2022).

In 2022 she was selected for a three-month artist residency in Draguignan, organized by La Marelle, Association Les Tours, and Dracénie Provence Agglomeration.

Click here to read Lidia's Mini Proust Q&I (Question and Illustration) inspired by the Proust Questionnaire.

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