Shadra Strickland, Stone Mountain, GA
Shadra Strickland garnered critical acclaim for her illustrations in her first picturebook, Bird. Drawing heavily from the work of Ben Shahn and William Kentridge, she created Bird’s world with magical realism using charcoal, watercolor, and ink. She won the Ezra Jack Keats Award and the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in 2009. Strickland co-illustrated Our Children Can Soar, winner of a 2010 NAACP Image Award. Shadra is also the illustrator of A Place Where Hurricanes Happen (Random House, 2010), written by Renee Watson: a story of four children in New Orleans before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Publishers Weekly called Strickland’s illustrations “quietly powerful,” and Booklist said, “In vibrant, mixed-media images, award-winning illustrator Strickland extends the drama, feeling, and individual stories.”
A native of Atlanta, GA, Strickland studied, design, writing, and illustration at Syracuse University and later went on to complete her M.F.A. at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. She travels the country conducting workshops and sharing her work with children, teachers, and librarians. Shadra currently lives in Atlanta where she continues to work on books and personal projects.
