Stacey Dressen-McQueen
Stacey Dressen-McQueen’s career as a picture book illustrator launched in 2003 with Boxes For Katje, which Publishers Weekly named a Best Children’s Book of the Year and praised as “an outstanding debut.” Stacey has since gone on to illustrate six more picture books and has been awarded a Bank Street Best Book, a Charlotte Zolotow Award, IRA, CBC, and NSTE Notables, Children’s Choice, and a Booklist Editor’s Choice among numerous other honors. Booklist said of Stacey’s artwork in a starred review of The Biggest Soap, “[T]he pencil, oil pastel, and acrylic artwork, alive with the sun-drenched colors and patterns of the South Pacific, bubble[s] with happiness.” Stacey draws inspiration for her work from a wide range of sources including Mexican folk-art, Gauguin’s paintings, Oceanic tribal art, and ancient Jewish cut-paper. Stacey grew up on a farm in South Dakota and now lives with her family in Portland, Oregon. She loves color, quiet, and cake.