Kitty Crowther

Kitty Crowther is a Belgian author-illustrator who won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2010. Born in Brussels to an English father and a Swedish mother, she creates picture books in French characterised by their sensitivity to the margins of experience — particularly childhood, loneliness, wonder, and the encounter with mortality. Crowther's picture books include Mon ami Jim, Scritch scratch dip clapote, and Alors?, and she often works in ink and watercolour with a distinctive, spare line. Her work has been widely translated and is particularly celebrated in France and Belgium. She is known for approaching difficult subjects — death, grief, loneliness — with gentleness and without condescension. The ALMA citation praised her work's ability to speak to children and adults alike, and her consistent advocacy for children's inner lives. She lives in Belgium.