Issa Watanabe was born in Lima. Her book Migrants has been translated into thirteen languages and received France’s Prix Sorcières 2021 for the best illustrated fiction book; Slovenia’s 2021 Zlata Hruska (Golden Pear) for best children’s and young people’s literature; the Llibreter 2020 for the best illustrated volume, awarded by the Gremi de Llibreters of Catalunya; the Banco del Libro de Venezuela Prize for the Best Visual Narrative 2020; and the White Raven 2020 (Internationale Jugendbibliothek) for Picture Books, and was named one of the best illustrated volumes of 2020 by Kirkus Reviews. She has also won the Grand Prize of the BIBF Ananas International Illustration Exhibition Jury, Beijing 2020, for the drawings in her series “The Long Journey.” This series was exhibited at the Bologna International Children’s and Youth Literature Fair in 2018. That same year it was selected to be part of the Pitti Bambino exhibition in Florence. She illustrated Micaela Cherif’s Más te vale Mastodonte (2014); Luigi Valdizán’s Las increíbles aventuras de Juanito y su bicicleta amarilla (The incredible adventures of Juanito and his yellow bicycle, 2014); and Carlos Yushimito’s La lavandera (The Washer-Woman, 2013), among others. Her illustrations have been exhibited in Spain, Italy, Japan, Korea, China, the United States, France, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and Peru. Her work is currently featured in the exhibit “Speechless: The Art of Wordless Picture Books” at the Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts. She lives in Lima.
