Katalin SZEGEDI

Website: www.picturebook.hu

Katalin Szegedi was born in 1963 in Budapest, Hungary. She graduated from the Hungarian University of Applied Arts where she majored in graphic art and book design, earning her Master of Arts Degree in 1991. That same year, she began illustrating books in her native Hungary. After finishing her studies, she had lots of varied and interesting work ? for example, she designed puppets for theater productions and developed graphic art designs of corporate images. In the meantime, she taught graphic arts for a couple of years for young people.

In 1994, Katalin was awarded a scholarship to study in Rome, where she spent several months developing her style.

In 2001 she began creating illustrations for foreigner publishers, too, and her work won the prestigious ?The Most Beautiful Children?s Book? prize with ?The Enchanted Princess? of Ludwig Bechstein (published by General Pres)s. This distinction, the Hungarian ecquivalent to the Caldecott Medal, was repeated in 2003 with her work titled ?The Fairy of the Mountains? of Petre Ispirescu (published by General Press), and in 2005, too, with the ?Golden Key, or Adventures of Burattino? of Aleksei Tolstoi (published by General Press).

She has also been recognized for ?The Weight of a Mass? of Josephine Nobisso (Gingerbread House, USA). Her work won the 3th prize of the ?Excellent in Design and Production? in the United States?.

In 2004 her work was ?higly commended? in an international illustration?s competition (Scarpetta d?Oro) in Italy.

Katalin Szegedi has been the recipient of the ?Illustrator of the Year? award in 2005 by the Hungarian section of IBBY.

She is nominated of IBBY?s Honour List in 2006.