The 2026 Annual Cover Author

Bologna Children's Book Fair hosts every other year the winners of the most prestigious children’s book awards in the arts.

After Sydney Smith (Canada), winner of the 2024 Hans Christian Andersen Award, the 2026 edition of the Fair presents Noushin Sadeghian (Iran), winner of the 2025 Grand Prix of the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB).

According to custom, the artist has created the cover for the Illustrators Annual that will accompany the 2026 Illustrators Exhibition and his original works will be presented in the artist’s solo exhibition during the Fair.

Noushin Sadeghian is an Iranian illustrator and visual artist. She holds a BA in Graphic Design and an MA in Illustration. Her interest in illustration developed during her university years, when drawing and visual storytelling became a way of observing and understanding the world around her.

Her independent professional practice began in 2019 and has gradually expanded beyond picture books into design, motion, and interdisciplinary projects.

Noushin’s work focuses on narrative, space, and inner experience. Drawing from traditional visual roots while engaging with the contemporary world, she reinterprets familiar structures through a modern and emotional lens. Simplicity, composition, and creativity are central to her practice. Her images rely on rhythm, silence, and atmosphere, aiming to evoke feeling rather than direct description.

Noushin has received numerous international awards, and her work has been featured at major events, including the Bologna Illustrators Exhibition, the Nami Concours exhibition, and the Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB), which awarded her the Grand Prix at the 2025 Biennial. She has also collaborated with various international publishers and cultural institutions.

Noushin’s approach to illustration is closely connected to the world of childhood. She sees the picture book as a space for pause, imagination, and emotional experience, where children can connect with images without explanation or judgment. For her, illustration is a quiet bridge between child and adult, thought and feeling.
 

The Illustrators Annual will soon be on pre-order.