Applications are open for the Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition 2021. The Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition is an international illustration contest held annually with the support of the Shanghai Press and Publication Administration. Since its creation in 2015, the competition has been providing a venue for emerging illustrators to showcase their talent. It aims to build bridges between them and children’s publishers, both locally and globally. Following its uninterrupted expansion, the 2020 edition of the competition received a ground-breaking number of submissions from 2,238 artists hailing from 77 countries and territories.

Prizes

• The winner of the Golden Pinwheel Grand Award (China) will be invited to attend the 2022 edition of the Bologna International Children’s Book Fair.
• The winner of the Golden Pinwheel Grand Award (International) will receive an invitation to the 2022 Shanghai International Children’s Book Fair.
• Both invitations include a flight ticket and full accommodation.
• Golden Pinwheel Young Illustrators Competition Astra Award: US$5,000.

Eligibility

• To compete, illustrators must be between 16 and 39 years of age; born between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 2005).
• Regardless of nationality, professional illustrators, art school students, and other illustration enthusiasts may all enter the competition free of charge. Entries may be sent by individual artists, schools, associations and other third-party organisations.
• Publishing houses who wish to enter artworks on behalf of an illustrator are allowed to submit only artworks selected from an original publication from their own catalogue.

Entry Requirements

• There are no limits to the entry theme and content provided that is it suitable for children’s book illustration. The competition accepts works created manually, digitally or by mixed techniques.
• A participant must submit a series of five illustrations on the same theme. Only one series may be submitted per artist each year. The artworks must be accompanied by an explanatory text in English (up to 500 signs); that describes their work and the tools/techniques used in its creation.
• The illustrations submitted shall be unaccompanied by any text unless the text is an integral and inseparable element of the illustration.
• Illustrations submitted in the competition may be published or unpublished. If published, the illustrations shall not have been published before 1 January 2019.
• Illustrations previously submitted to the Golden Pinwheel are not eligible for re-entry.

For registration and submission the CCBF official website.