Ukrainian Mariia Haiduk Wins International Illustration Prize

Ukrainian illustrator Mariia Haiduk has won the prestigious 2025 Bologna Children’s Book Fair International Illustration Prize.

‘The Jury members were particularly impressed by the impact and potential of the artist’s work, which balances boldness with sensitivity,’commented the fair’s team on their Facebook.

Mariia Haiduk received the award for her project Killing the Gods, an artistic exploration of attitudes towards wildlife and the natural world.

‘I truly hope that thanks to this project, more people will pay attention to the problem of genocide that humans commit against nature and animals,’ the artist wrote on her Instagram page.

A total of 21,870 works by 4,374 artists from 89 countries were submitted for the 59th edition of the illustrators’ exhibition. Among the 324 finalists were four Ukrainian artists: Oksana Drachkovska, Sofia Kupriyanova, Anna Ivanenko, and Olesya Sekeresh.

Since 1963, the Bologna Children’s Book Fair has been held annually in March or April in Italy. It is a key event for professionals in the children’s book industry, serving as a platform for the buying and selling of rights, including translation rights and derivative products like movies or animated series.

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