Lina Itagaki

Lina Itagaki (LT) is a freelance illustrator and comic artist whose first book, ʻSiberian Haikuʼ (text by Jurga Vilė), was published in 2017 to great critical acclaim. Itagaki was born in Kaunas in 1979 and has a BA in International Economics from the International Christian University in Tokyo. She worked as a manager and translator in the Lithuanian branch of a Japanese video games company. After taking private drawing lessons for four years, Lina entered the Vilnius Academy of Art and gained her BA in printmaking and graphic art in 2014. Lina contributed a comic to the anthology ʻDrawing the XXth centuryʼ (Ciklonas, 2017), and is currently working on her first illustrated children’s book.

---

Emilie Josso

Emilie Josso (FR) is a comic artist and illustrator based in Bologna. Josso was born in Aurillac in 1990, and studied illustration in Paris, engraving in Bologna and comics in Hamburg. In 2016, she joined the Migrant Image Research Group which is studying the visual representation of Lampedusa in international media since a tragic migrant shipwreck in 2013 catapulted the small island into the global limelight. The group’s research has been published in the anthology ʻLampedusa. Bildgeschichten vom Rande Europasʼ (Spector Books, 2017), featuring Josso’s work.

---

Julia Kluge

Julia Kluge (GER) is a freelance illustrator in Leipzig. Her artwork has appeared in various print and online magazines. Her first book, ʻZwischen den Zweigen zwitschert ein Waldhornʼ, was published by Rotopol in 2017. Born in Rodewisch in 1989, she studied visual communication and illustration at the Burg Giebichenstein University of Art and Design Halle, and has an MA in Illustration from the Berlin University of the Arts. In May 2017, she came in third in the BoekieBoekie stArt Award for up-and-coming illustrators in Rotterdam. Julia also teaches illustration and specialises in graphic recording for conferences and other events.

---

Alice Socal

Alice Socal (IT) was born in Mestre-Venice in 1986. In 2017, her graphic novel ʻCry me a riverʼ (Coconino Press / Rotopol) won the Rudolph Dirks Award. She has studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna and has a diploma in illustration and comics from the University of Applied Sciences Hamburg. Her debut  book, ʻLukeʼ, was published by G.I.U.D.A. Edizioni in 2011. Her next book, ʻSandroʼ, appeared both in Italy (Eris Edizioni, 2015) and Germany (Rotopol, 2016). Alice has contributed short comics to various international anthologies and magazines. She currently lives in Berlin where she works as a freelance illustrator and draws comics.