Baek Hee-na (Korean: 백희나, Romanized: Baek Hui-na, born 1 December 1971 in Seoul) is a South Korean author of picture books, an illustrator and

animator An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, which give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video gam ...

. She writes picture books with characters that have distinct personalities and with charming storytelling based on various illustration production experiences. Her representative work, ''Magic Candies'', was selected as a recommended work and included on the

IBBY The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) is an international non-profit organization committed to bringing books and children together. The headquarters of the IBBY are located in Basel, Switzerland. IBBY history In 1952, Jella Lepm ...

Honour List in 2018 and produced as a musical in South Korea. Baek is the first South Korean to win the

Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award ( sv, Litteraturpriset till Astrid Lindgrens minne) is an international children's literary award established by the Swedish government in 2002 to honour the Swedish children's author Astrid Lindgren (1907–200 ...

(ALMA) in 2020. Her picture books have been translated and published in several languages, including

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and

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Life

Baek was born in Seoul in 1971, majored in

Education Technology Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers ...

Ewha Womans University Ewha Womans University () is a private women's university in Seoul founded in 1886 by Mary F. Scranton under Emperor Gojong. It was the first university founded in South Korea. Currently, Ewha is one of the world's largest female educational ins ...

and studied

character animation Character animation is a specialized area of the animation process, which involves bringing animated s to life. The role of a character animator is analogous to that of a film or stage actor and character animators are often said to be "actors wit ...

at the

California Institute of the Arts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art university in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both ...

. After graduation, she worked as an animator in the U.S. and returned to

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

to make her debut with her first picture book, ''Cloud Bread'', in 2004. Film-related classes and studies of directing and storytelling became the basis of her work for picture books. Using her various animation production experiences, she writes picture books with characters that have distinct personalities and charming storytelling. She creates artwork, such as characters and backgrounds, with a lot of creativity, items, and details by participating in exhibitions and filming her work by herself. This allows the maintenance of the intimacy between the background and characters of picture books and the much more vivid conveyance of stories. She lives in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

with her husband, two children, and a dog.

Career

Baek was selected as the Author of the Year for Fiction for her picture book ''Cloud Bread'' at the

Bologna Children's Book Fair The Bologna Children's Book Fair or La fiera del libro per ragazzi is the leading professional fair for children's books in the world. Since 1963, it is held yearly for four days in March or April in Bologna, Italy. It is the meeting place for al ...

in 2005. Also, her book was selected and introduced in 100 Korean Picture Books at the

Frankfurt Book Fair The Frankfurt Book Fair (German: Frankfurter Buchmesse, FBM) is the world's largest trade fair for books, based on the number of publishing companies represented. It is considered to be the most important book fair in the world for internationa ...

. ''Cloud Bread'' has been translated and published in about 10 countries. It was published in English in 2011 and produced as children's musical and TV animation as well. In 2012 and 2013, with the picture book ''The Bath Fairy'', she won a prize at the 53rd Korea Publishing Culture Awards and

Changwon Changwon () is the capital city of Gyeongsangnam-do, on the southeast coast of South Korea. With a population of 1.07 million , Changwon is South Korea's ninth-most populous city. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south ...

Children's Literature Award. ''Magic Candie''s was included on the

Honour List in 2018 and won the Picture Book Translation Award and Reader Award in the 24th Japanese Picture Book Awards, sponsored jointly by the Japan School Library Association and

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in 2019. In 2020, she won the

(ALMA). Despite selling over 500,000 copies of her book and associated merchandise drawing over ₩440 billion (USD $433 million as of 2014) in sales, Baek Hee-Na received only ₩18.5 million (about $18,200 in 2014) in royalties for creating the concept behind Cloud Bread and writing the story because of an unfair contract of the type common in Korea at the time. The issue led the Korean government to take action against publishing houses that issued these contracts.

Style

Baek always tries something new in pictures or techniques. She produces and composes works of art and produces books through exhibitions and films, using a 3D illustration technique. Especially, she creates characters using ‘

Sculpey Sculpey (often misspelled as ''Sculpy'') is the brand name for a type of polymer clay that can be molded and put into a conventional oven to harden, as opposed to typical modeling clays, which require a much hotter oven, such as a kiln. Until it ...

.’ Several main characters are produced according to their major facial expressions. She utilizes the

stop-motion animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

technique. She produces the sets for stories herself and checks the lighting herself for photography to build up her unique world of artwork. The ALMA Steering Committee summarizes her artwork through the following commentary. ''"Baek Hee-na is an artist who develops the field of picture books, showing uncompromising and bold techniques and artistic solutions by interestingly combining crafts made by hand and animation elements.”''

Awards

* 2005 The Illustrator of the Year Award at the Bologna Children's Book Fair - ''Cloud Bread'' * 2012 The 53rd Korea Publishing Culture Awards - ''The Bath Fairy'' * 2013 The 3rd Changwon Children's Literature Award - ''The Bath Fairy'' * 2019 The Picture Book Translation Award and Reader Award in the 24th Japanese Picture Book Awards - ''Magic Candies'' * 2020 The Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA)

Works

In an interview, she said that she thought that picture books should give readers comfort and courage rather than general teaching. This is well reflected in her works. * 2004 ''Cloud Bread'' (Hansol Soobook) * 2007 ''The Boy Who Looked for the North Wind'' (Sigong Junior) * 2007 ''The Pink Rope'' (Sigong Junior) ) * 2010 ''Moon Sherbet'' (Bear Books) * 2011 ''Last Evening'' (Bear Books) * 2011 ''Peep's Mother'' (Bear Books) * 2012 ''The Bath Fairy'' (Bear Books) * 2014 ''The Poop Fly I Tasted in my Dream'' (Bear Books) * 2016 ''Strange Mothe''r (Bear Books) * 2017 ''Magic Candies'' (Bear Books) * 2018 ''The Strange Visitor'' (Bear Books) * 2019 ''I am a Dog'' (Bear Books)

Collaborations with other authors

* 2006 ''I Really like Rainy Days'', written by Eun-gyu Choi (Upright Tree) * 2006 ''Let's Play with the Moon'', written by Myo-gwang Park (Upright Tree) * 2006 ''Our Play and Our Culture in All Seasons'', written by Sun-young Lee (Hansol Soobook) ''*'' ''Dak paper doll making'' * 2006 ''Red Bean Porridge Granny and the Tiger'', written by Yun-gyu Park (Sigong Junior)

References

External links

Official HomepagePersonal Social Media AccountThe announcement of winners in the 2020 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA)An interview with winners in the 2020 ALMA"''A Door that opens to Wonderland''," ''Knowledge Channel'' ''ⓔ'', EBS (Korea Educational Broadcasting System), 2 July 2020''“You Quiz on the Block”'' Interview, tvN(South Korean TV Channel of Semi-Comprehensive Programming), 9 September 2020
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baek, Hee-na 1971 births Living people People from Seoul South Korean illustrators South Korean women illustrators South Korean children's writers South Korean women children's writers South Korean children's book illustrators Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award winners 21st-century South Korean women writers