Meet the Fellows: Oliver Jeffers
We join artist, author, and Seamus Heaney Centre Fellow for 2021, Oliver Jeffers in the studio, as he introduces his diverse practice. Oliver is introduced by Children’s Writing Fellow for NI, Kelly McCaughrain.
Oliver Jeffers is an artist and author working in painting, bookmaking, illustration, collage, performance and sculpture. Curiosity and humour are underlying themes throughout Oliver’s practice as an artist and storyteller. Jeffers’ engagements and practice are truly international in scope. His critically acclaimed picture books are translated into over forty languages, selling over ten million copies worldwide. His original artwork has been exhibited at New York’s Brooklyn Museum, Dublin’s Irish Museum of Modern Art, London’s National Portrait Gallery and Vienna’s Palais Auersperg. Jeffers has received numerous awards, including a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books Award, Bologna Rigazzi Award, an Irish Book Award, and a UK Literary Association Award. He releases his eighteenth book as author and illustrator, What We’ll Build, in October 2020, and has illustrated several others. Oliver grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland; he currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.