Cory Q Tan

Cory Q Tan is an award-winning children’s book author who illustrates his own books. Or rather, an illustrator who writes his own stories, for he sees himself first as an artist, then a writer. He graduated from the Slade School of Fine Art (UK), trained in the fine traditions of lithography and etching, and his works had always had a strong illustrative quality. He has an affinity for figurative and surrealist art, and Peter Breughel, Pablo Picasso and Japanese Anime Master Hayao Miyazaki count amongst his favourite artists.

He first came across the idea of becoming a children’s book author when he became a father at the age of 32, but it wasn’t until 11 years later that he finally produced his first children’s picture book– ‘A Very Special Cat’. Since then, he has gone on to produce 6 more books and is enjoying art making and story telling like never before!

Cory’s books had won several awards over the past few years, including The Story Monster Royal Dragonfly Award (Honorable Mention), The Independent Publisher Book Awards (Silver, Children’s Illustrated E-Books) and The New Generation Indie Book Awards (Winner, Best Illustrations). In 2020, his book ‘Theodore The Unfortunate Bear’ was even shortlisted for the prestigious International Rubery Book Awards (UK)! His proudest moment to date, however, was when he won the Gold Medal for Children's Illustrated Picture Books (E-Book) in the 2020 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards for his newest book 'Theodore and The Bear from London'!

A former art teacher, Cory has a huge passion for art history and enjoyed teaching it to his students. He has infused elements of art history in many of his books and through his books, he hopes to increase the awareness of well-known and less well-known masterpieces to his readers.