The Little Hare Illustration Prize

The Little Hare Prize for Illustration will return in 2023

The inaugural Little Hare Prize for Illustration by Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing is now closed for submissions. The prize will return in 2023. 

The Little Hare Prize for Illustration was established by Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing in 2020 to inspire new work from unpublished and emerging artists. Awarded annually, the winner will receive a publishing contract and full editorial support to illustrate a new story for Little Hare. 

2021 WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT  

Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing is thrilled to announce Meg Rennie as the inaugural winner of the Little Hare Illustration Prize. Meg’s artwork enchanted the judging panel with her vivacious character work and interpretation of the text provided.  

The Little Hare Illustration Prize was established to inspire new work from unpublished and emerging artists. Awarded annually, the winner will receive a publishing contract and full editorial support to illustrate a new story for Little Hare. This year’s story is Let's Build a Boat! written by beloved and bestselling author Jane Godwin. Meg Rennie will now illustrate the full manuscript and the book will be available to purchase in 2023.

HGCP Publisher Ana Vivas, the founder of the prize, is delighted to welcome Meg as the inaugural winner. ‘Meg Rennie’s illustration style is fresh, bold and imbued with an endearing liveliness,’ Ana says. ‘Her expressive characters will create a wonderful visual narrative to accompany Jane Godwin’s beautiful picture book text.’

Jane Godwin, who also served on the judging panel, was similarly excited to welcome Meg Rennie as a creative partner. ‘I’m thrilled to be part of the inaugural Little Hare Illustration Prize, and excited to collaborate with Meg Rennie on her first picture book. Meg’s bold colour, her strong design sense, the textures in her work and her well-considered palette all stand out to me, and I’m sure she has a very bright future in the world of children’s books. Well done, Meg!’  

Publisher Ana Vivas is also proud to be creating opportunities for emerging artists who are looking for a pathway into traditional book publishing. ‘My aim of creating this prize is to open the door to emerging illustrators and give them the opportunity to work with the experienced and talented team at Hardie Grant Children’s Publishing,’ she says. ‘We are privileged to have such a robust creative community in Australia, and I am honoured to work with artists at all stages of their career. It is my hope that providing this entryway prize will create meaningful opportunities for new creators and diversify our talented list of existing illustrators. The calibre of entries was outstanding, which made it very difficult to choose a shortlist and even harder to choose a winner.’

HGCP thanks all entrants who took the time to share their work, and in particular our shortlisted artists – Jennifer Goldsmith, Jake Minton and Hyo Young Yim.

The Little Hare Illustration Prize will return in 2023.

2021 SHORTLIST ANNOUCEMENT 

The quality and calibre of illustrators who entered the Little Hare Prize for Illustration was very high, and it was a challenging task to choose just a few of the many incredible submissions for the shortlist. The judges took time to consider each entry, looking for illustrators’ abilities to bring an exciting visual narrative to Jane Godwin’s beautiful picture book text, and to create characters that can move effortlessly through the story. We were pleased to see so many diverse entries that interpreted the text through the distinctive lens of each artist, from soft watercolours to bold and bright paper montage. These four entries all possess a unique interpretation of the story and characters, and a talent for the art of picture book illustration. We are thrilled to present these emerging artists as part of our inaugural shortlist selection:

• Jennifer Goldsmith
• Jake Minton
• Meg Rennie
• Hyo Young Yim

Jennifer Goldsmith:
Jennifer’s work has a lovely delicate sensibility, in line with classic picture book artists. She also has a great sense of motion and imagination in her work. 

Jake Minton:
Jake’s work has an exciting playfulness and exuberance – his characters bounce off the page with such energy. His illustration style will bring any picture book text to life, and engender a great deal of laughter.  

Meg Rennie:
Meg’s illustration style is fresh and bold. It has an endearing liveliness, which is able to express an exciting visual narrative to complement Jane’s beautiful picture book text.  

Hyo Young Yim:
Hyo Young’s work has a beautifully strong sense of style. She expresses colour, character and place in a unique and personal way. Hyo Young is destined for an exciting future illustrating picture books.   

 We thank everyone who took the time to submit their artwork for consideration. The winner will be announced in February.

The Little Hare Prize for Illustration will return in 2023.

ENTRY PROCESS

The Little Hare Prize for Illustration is open to artists of all backgrounds – from budding illustrators to college graduates, from graphic designers to fine artists. To be eligible for the prize, artists should not have illustrated more than one picture book with a trade publisher. 

Artists are asked to create artwork for a story contracted to Little Hare. To be considered, artists must submit artwork illustrated to provided text, demonstrating character development and the ability to interpret narrative

ABOUT THE BOOK

Let’s build a boat

with wood and nails

‘What colour?’ 

‘Blue! With bright red sails.’

Will the boat float? Even when the waves get big?

How will the brave crew manage when trouble strikes?

This rollicking seafaring tale is full of energy, optimism 

and the spirit of staying afloat together in tough times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jane Godwin is the highly acclaimed author of over thirty books for young people, across all styles and ages. We are thrilled that her latest unpublished work, Let’s Build a Boat! willform the basis of the Little Hare Prize for Illustration. Jane will sit on the judging panel and will help vote on the winning submission.

Jane comes from an illustrious publishing background and has received a number of commendations. She has been published locally and overseas, and was the publisher of children’s books at Penguin Australia for more than a decade.

Jane’s most recent novel is When Rain Turns to Snow (2020) and her most recent picture books are Tilly, illustrated by Anna Walker and shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Picture Book of the Year Award, and I’ll Always be Older than You, illustrated by Sara Acton.

The key dates for the inaugural Little Hare Prize for Illustration are as follows:

Entries open: Thursday 1 October 2020 

Entries close: Friday 30 October 2020 

Shortlist announced: Wednesday 5 February 2021

Winner announced: Wednesday 17 February 

The news will also be promoted in the Weekly Book Newsletter, on the Hardie Grant Children's Publishing website, and on Facebook and Twitter, as well as in an email to newsletter subscribers.