Who are the illustrators for the 500 Words 2026/27 prizes?

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Each year in 500 Words, there are lots of prizes up for grabs - including the winners seeing their work immortalised by a top children's illustrator.

The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will take home a framed illustrated cover of their story created exclusively by Yuval Zommer, Nicola Kent, Matty Long, Diane Ewen, Becky Cameron, and Chanté Timothy.

The illustrations will be published alongside the winning stories in a special 500 Words Winners' Book, featuring the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners in both categories.

You can read more about the illustrators in the slideshow below, to find out what makes them the perfect pick. You can also browse the illustrations from last year's competition.

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Matty Long
Matty Long is a multi-award winning author and illustrator based in Cambridge, England, and has a First Class Degree in Illustration, and a Masters degree in Children's Book Illustration. Most of his work is drawn by hand and coloured on a computer. His picture books include the Super Happy Magic Forest series, which was adapted into a hit animation series on CBBC, and Salty Dogs. Matty is also the author of the chapter book fiction series, Croaky, where book one in the series was the winner in the Emerging Reads category at the Sheffield Children’s Book Awards 2026.
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Diane Ewen
Diane Ewen is a multi-award-winning writer and illustrator. Her debut author illustrated picture book, The Great Unicorn Rescue is published by Pan Macmillan. A sequel to her debut, The Great Unicorn Escape published in April 2026. Diane has also co-created books with outstanding authors including Maria Isabel Sánchez Vegara (Little People Big Dreams: Lenny Henry) and the well-loved Dame Floella Benjamin's Coming to England. She was the inaugural winner of the Jericho Prize in 2021, winner of the Queen's Knickers Award (2021), winner The Anna Dewdney Award (2022) and one of the illustrators to win a Nibbie in 2022 for Hey You! written by Dapo Adeola.
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Yuval Zommer
Yuval Zommer graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Illustration. He worked for many years as a creative director at leading advertising agencies before becoming the author and illustrator of highly acclaimed non-fiction titles including the Big Book Of… series which has won and been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the UKLA Book Awards. He is the author and illustrator of The Tree That’s Meant to Be (Sunday Times Children’s Book of the Year), A Thing Called Snow, The Lights that Dance in the Night, The Wild (Winner of the UNICEF Children's Book Prize), amongst other titles.
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Nicola Kent
Nicola Kent is a multi-award-winning author and illustrator of books for young children. These include novelty board books for babies, picture books, non-fiction, and her highly illustrated early chapter book series, Cat and Dumpling, which is specially designed for newly independent readers. She studied English and Art at university and worked as a producer for over ten years. She then studied for an MA in Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art. In 2019, she won the independent Booksellers’ Best New Illustrator Award. Nicola is passionate about creating warm, kind, humorous books for the small children to share with their grownups, or explore on their own.
Image source, Elle Narbrook
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Becky Cameron
Becky was highly commended in the Macmillan Prize during her MA at the Cambridge School of Art and has been a successful picture book illustrator ever since. Her debut author-illustrated picturebook 'Wishing for a Dragon' was published by Hodder Children's in 2018. As well as her authored titles, Becky has illustrated much-loved classics such as Enid Blyton and Paddington. She also teaches illustration at Sheffield Hallam University.
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Chanté Timothy
Chanté Timothy is a rising star author/illustrator best known for her award-winning comic book series Supa Nova. Chanté is the winner of the Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) Awards 2026 in both the Children’s Choice Award and Highly Illustrated Fiction category. Chanté loves experimenting with movement, vibrant colour, character design and storytelling. The one thing she enjoys most about being an illustrator is the wide variety of subject matters you learn about on the job, you’d think most of the studying would be left at school but Chanté often finds herself learning new facts and interesting concepts from given briefs

Who are the illustrators for 500 Words 2026/27?

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