Sydney Writers Festival - Children's Creators with Stories of Living Together from Korea and Australia

FEM supporting diversity, inclusion, equality.

Journeying on the pathway to peace with 'Elephants Have Wings'

Key Facts:

Korean and Australian picture book creators join in peace, nature, animals, environment.

Sydney Writers Festival – Children’s Creators with Stories of Living Together from Korea and Australia

Presented by Arts Council Korea, Sydney Writers' Festival, Korean Cultural Centre Australia, and Creative Australia.

Join five inspiring children’s authors Hyunmin Park, Hyewon Kyung, Suyeon Lee and Susanne Gervay and Antonia Pesenti from Korea and Australia for a special conversation on nature, animals, and the environment, followed by a networking event.

Date Tuesday 19 May 2026. Where Korean Cultural Centre Australia, Ground Floor/255 Elizabeth St, Sydney NSW. Conversation: 6pm-7pm ; Networking Event: 7pm – 8pm

Join five inspiring children’s authors from Korea and Australia for a special conversation on nature, animals, and the environment.

Through their work, the authors explore how children’s literature can encourage curiosity, empathy, and a deeper understanding of the world we share. Discover how storytelling helps young readers connect with nature and learn the importance of living together in harmony. In Conversation program will be followed by a networking opportunity, inviting audiences to continue the discussion and connect with speakers and fellow attendees.
Korean–English consecutive interpretation will be provided.

Hyunmin Park is a Seoul-based illustrator and picture book author whose work expands sensory perception through both books and exhibitions. Engaging with materiality, visual language, and spatial experience, he creates immersive environments that invite audiences to reconsider how images are seen, felt, and interpreted.

He has received international recognition, including the Grand Prize (Fiction) at the Korea Picture Book Award and the Opera Prima Special Mention at the Bologna Ragazzi Award. His work such as So Much Snow and City Flight have been featured at major platforms such as the Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava and the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Through a combination of diverse exhibitions and ongoing publications, Park continues to engage with audiences, exploring new ways of communication across visual and narrative forms.

Hyewon Kyung is a South Korean picture book author and illustrator. Her representative works include Elevator, Dinosaur X-Ray, Bigger Than You, I’m a Lioness, and My Big, Secret Friend. Kyung has worked as an illustrator since 2004, mainly providing illustrations for children's books. Since many of her picture books are dinosaur-themed, she is also known as a "dinosaur author" to children in Korea.

She has always been drawn to the beauty of Korean art, a passion that shines through her illustrations for many classic Korean folk tales. Even today, she prefers the texture of traditional Hanji paper and pigments. Her representative works, I Am a Lioness and The Elevator, were created using a meticulous Hanji collage technique, blending tradition with contemporary storytelling.

Suyeon Lee studied Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts in the UK. She creates books that explore deep human emotions and offer comfort and healing.

She is the author and illustrator of When It Rains, the Grass Grows and Breakfast on the Moon.

Two Friends on My Shoulder was selected for the 2023 White Ravens, and I Sell Furniture Somehow was featured in the 2025 AFCC Illustrator Gallery. She received the 2025 Northern Festival of Illustration Prize for The Big House.

Susanne Gervay OAM has been awarded the Lifetime Social Justice Literature Award for her books by the International Literacy Association, nominated for the Astrid Ingrid Memorial Award 2026 and awarded an Order of Australia for children’s literature. Her picture books range from pre-school to older readers as they tackle the great issues of our time from disability, refugees, multiculturalism, inclusion to peace. She seeks to engage young people in complex issues with humour and empathy. Professor of English, D. R . Pattanaik Banaras Hindu University Varanasi India’s writes that ‘Elephants Have Wings demonstrates with great power that we can teach our children profound truths and timeless values.’

Her picture books include Elephants Have Wings, The Boy with the Big Blue Glasses, Gracie and Josh, Ships in the Field, Who’s the Gang on our Street, Guess How I Was Born. As an ambassador for Room to Read, Patron of Monkey Baa Theatre, co-Regional Advisor of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, Australia East, literacy and reading ambassador picture books can inspire young people in their understanding of their world. sgervay.com

Antonia Pesenti is an architect, illustrator and visual storyteller. She combines directing the multidisciplinary design practice studio fable with creating, designing and making books - exploring all formats from experimental zines through to award-winning picture books.

Bookings: https://lnkd.in/ghQhTwNt

Media Contact:-

Kate Minji Jung 정 민 지 (선임실무관)

Senior Manager / Education and Literature

Korean Cultural Centre Australia

a: Ground floor, 255 Elizabeth St. Sydney NSW 2000

w: www.koreanculture.org.a u e: [email protected] p: 02 8267 3488

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