Tapioca Stories: Latin American Artists in Conversation

Mariana Alcántara Pedraza, born in Mexico City in 1991, is the illustrator of Swimmers, by María José Ferrada (Tapioca Stories, 2022). She won the Illustrator’s Catalog at the 2019 Encuentro Valladolid Ilustrado International Children’s and Young Adult Book Fair in Spain, and 3rd Prize at the Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival in 2018. Her work was included in The White Ravens Catalogue in 2019.

Yael Berstein is the founder of Tapioca Stories, a New York-based publishing house that introduces young readers to the finest Latin American children’s books. Tapioca Stories is her venture to create children’s books that cross borders and connect readers to other ways of thinking and living. 

Guilherme Karsten was born and lives in Blumenau, Brazil. His 2019 book Aaahhh! (Tapioca Stories, 2021) received several prizes, including the Golden Pinwheel Grand Award and a Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava Plaque. In 2021, he won the Jabuti Award, the prestigious literary Brazilian prize by the Brazilian Book Chamber. His illustrated books have been translated into fourteen languages.

Andrés Sandoval, born in 1973 in Chile, is an illustrator and graphic artist based in São Paulo, Brazil. With Alcides Villaça, he is the creator of The Invisible (Tapioca Stories, 2020). He has been illustrating for the Brazilian magazine Piauí since 2006, and has created prints and patterns for brands such as L’Occitane, Melissa, and Coca-Cola. His illustrations have been published by Companhia das Letras, Cosac Naify, Editora 34, Planeta Tangerina, Pato Lógico, and the New Yorker, among others.