MENTORS
ZENO SWORDER
Zeno Sworder is a writer and artist who lives in Melbourne, Australia. He is a husband, and father of two very creative daughters.
He has worked as a window washer, journalist, English language teacher, consular officer, tribunal advocate for refugees and immigrants and a jewellery designer.
But he is most at home sitting at his desk drawing pictures and making up stories.
Zeno is a lover of all stationery but he has a particular soft spot for pencils.
He is the award-winning author and illustrator of the books The Small Blue Dot and My Strange Shrinking Parents.
FREDA CHIU
Freda Chiv is a Chinese Australian illustrator, author and educator. Her work has been published locally and internationally by clients including Hardie Grant, Allen and Unwin, Walker Books, Hachette Kids and Penguin Random House. As well as making joyful art for children's books, her work spans editorial, branding illustration and art for public spaces. Outside her art practice, Freda lectures in Illustration and Visual Communication at the University of Technology Sydney. Her debut picture book, A Trip to the Hospital, was short-listed for the 2021 IBBY Australia Ena Noel Award and for the Children's Book Council of Australia (CBCA)'s New Illustrator Award.
Sher rill ng
Sher Rill Ng is a Naarm/Melbourne based illustrator.
She designed and illustrated for Saas companies before releasing her first author-illustrated picture book Our Little Inventor in 2019. In 2022, Our Little Inventor was adapted into a children's opera, composed by Emma Jayakumar and presented by the West Australian Opera. Her work includes middle grade book covers for The Twelve by Cindy Lin, The Rogues by Lian Tanner and Winnie Zeng Unleashes a Legend by Katie Zhao.
Most recently Sher Rill has illustrated Be Careful, Xiao Xin! written by Alice Pung, for which she was awarded the 2024 IBBY Australia Ena Noel Award for Illustration, and Millie Mak the Maker.