Born in Germany and raised in New York City, Vesper Stamper writes and illustrates novels, award-winning picture books and graphic novels which tell, through both words and pictures, stories of history’s rhymes and journeys through dark forests. Vesper is a National Book Award Nominee, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Morris Award Finalist, Golden Kite Honor Book and Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, among many other honors.

Vesper did all of her art education along the 7th Avenue 1 train, as an alumna of LaGuardia High School of the Arts, with a BFA in Illustration from Parsons and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from School of Visual Arts, where she was also a professor of illustration. She speaks (in varying degrees of a Staten Island/Manhattan accent) at conferences and institutions at home and abroad with the aim of cultivating a rehumanized worldview through artistic thinking. She grows roses and her library on a mountain with her husband, filmmaker Ben Stamper.

Education
MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay, School of Visual Arts, NYC
BFA Illustration, Parsons School of Design, NYC
LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, NYC (Visual Art & Vocal Music)

Awards/Grants
Golden Kite Award Finalist
National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Young Adult Literature
National Book Award Nominee in Young People’s Literature
Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner
William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
Golden Kite Honor Book
TENT Children’s Book Residency, Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA
People’s Choice Finalist, Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search
Lincoln City Fellowship, Speranza Foundation (2x)
Center for Faith and Work Artist-in-Residence, NYC
SCBWI New Jersey Juried Show Grand Prize (2x)
SCBWI New Jersey People’s Choice
School of Visual Arts MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department Scholarship
American Illustration 39, 41, 42
Jury Member, Illustrators 65
Creative Quarterly 45-46
St. Andrew's Society of Washington, DC Scholar

Starred Reviews/Lists
Kirkus
Publisher's Weekly
School Library Journal
Booklist
Horn Book
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Book
White Raven Book (Internationale Jugendbibliothek)
TAYSHAS Selection (Texas Library Association)
Oklahoma Sequoyah Award Selection

Exhibitions
Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art: Weaving Words: Fiber Arts and Picture Books
Proverbs, Poems, Promises, Messiah University
Agora @ 150 W83: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
14th Street Y: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Hadas Gallery & Synagogue: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Walnut Hill Community Church: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Parsons School of Design Alumni Show
School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Show
School of Visual Arts MFA Book Show
The Breath & The Clay Creative Conference
All Angels Church Gallery
Mikhail Zakin Gallery

Select Clients
Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House)
Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown/Hachette)
Holiday House Books
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Random House Studio Books (Penguin Random House)
Abrams
Enchanted Lion Books
ModCloth
Society of Visual Storytelling

Memberships
Society of Illustrators
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Author’s Guild

Speaking
Bologna Book Fair, Italy
Morgan Library, NYC
School of Visual Arts, NYC
Parsons School of Design, NYC
Pratt College, NYC
Vassar College, NY
American Library Association
Yiddish Book Center
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Miami Book Fair, FL
92nd Street Y, NYC
14th Street Y, NYC
Association of Jewish Libraries
Hutchmoot Arts Conference, TN
The Breath and The Clay Conference, NC
Harbor Springs Festival of the Book, MI
Sam Fox School, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
The Symbolic World Conference, FL
Gordon College, MA
Books by the Banks Festival, Cincinnati, OH
Touchstone Conference, Chicago, IL
BASE Hillel, NYC
…And many more high schools, colleges, bookstores, conferences and community organizations!