Donovan Bixley

Taupo based author and illustrator Donovan Bixley has illustrated more than 120 books, published in 31 countries, translated into 19 languages. He’s been awarded as both a writer and illustrator, and also as a book designer. His most recent award is for the junior fiction series Flying Furballs (Upstart Press 2016). Book 1 Dogfight, won the 2018 Tatoulu children’s choice award in France.

In 2017 he was the recipient of the New Zealand Arts Foundation Mallinson Rendel Laureate Award, for lifetime achievement as an illustrator. He is a two time recipient of the International Youth Library’s White Raven Award (listing the top 200 children’s books in the world) for: Fuzzy Doodle (written by Melinda Szymanik, published by Scholastic NZ) in 2017, and my innovative hybrid part-novel, part-comic Monkey Boy (Scholastic NZ), in 2015. Monkey Boy also won the top prize for junior fiction at the 2015 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. His illustrated biography Much Ado About Shakespeare won the Russell Clark Illustration Award for best illustration at the 2016 NZ Book Awards for Children and Young Adults.

He lives in Taupo with his wife and three daughters.