Folio Society launches illustration award

The Folio Society has launched a new annual prize for illustrators from around the world to mark the publisher’s 75th anniversary. 

Entries are now open for the inaugural Folio Book Illustration Award (Folio BIA). which aims to find new illustration talent for narrative fiction. Entrants can be student or professional illustrators who have not previously been commissioned by The Folio Society, and will this year be asked to illustrate a single scene of their choice from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. 

Selected from a shortlist of six, the winning entrant will receive a £2,000 cash prize plus a £500 Folio gift voucher. The remaining shortlisted artists will each receive a £500 voucher. 

The judging panel is composed of award-winning New York-based illustrator and instructor Yuko Shimizu, Folio Society publishing director Tom Walker, Folio Society art directors Sheri Gee and Raquel Leis Allion. The winner and five shortlisted runners-up will be offered the opportunity of a portfolio review with the art directors.

Commenting on the launch, Joanna Reynolds, c.e.o. of The Folio Society, said: “The Folio Society has proudly published beautifully illustrated books and produced editions of the best of contemporary and classic narrative fiction for 75 years. What better way to recognise this, our 75th birthday and the fabulous contribution of illustrators everywhere, than through an accessible and international competition.”

The application window closes on 30th June 2022, after which a longlist of 20 entries chosen by the judges will be exhibited on The Folio Society website from 18th July 2022. The six shortlisted entries will be announced online on 16th August. 

Tom Walker, publishing director at The Folio Society, added that by taking a classic American writer and inviting visual interpretations of his timeless short story the organisers hoped to discover "amazing talent from a diverse and distinctly 21st-century array of illustrators”.

“We hope that artists from all over the world will bring their unique depiction of Poe’s chilling tale to contemporary and future generations. I am confident it will be the start of many new, great careers,” he said.