Eric Velasquez earned his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and has illustrated over 30 children’s books. His first picture book “The Piano Man” by Debbie Chocolate, published by Bloomsbury won the Coretta-Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. Eric also wrote and illustrated “Grandma’s Records” and it’s follow up “Grandma’s Gift” which won a Pura Belpre’ Award for illustration. Later Eric illustrated “Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library” by Carole Boston Weatherford which earned five starred reviews and won a Walter Award from the WNDB (WE NEEED DEVERSE BOOKS) organization as well as the SCBWI’s The Golden Kite Award. Eric also wrote and illustrated “Octopus Stew” which gathered rave reviews and is sure to make you laugh and the Spanish version “Pulpo Quisado” won the silver medal Best Spanish language book from Bank Street College. Eric also illustrated “She Was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm” by Katheryn Russell-Brown published by Lee and Low Books and it was awarded the NAACP Image Award for outstanding literature for children. Eric’s book “Going Places: Victor Hugo Green and his Glorious Book” by Tonya Bolden has earned five starred reviews. Eric teaches book illustration at FIT (The Fashion Institute of Technology) in NYC.
For more information, please visit his web site EricVelasquez.com
