Manuel Marsol

Born in Madrid in 1984, Manuel Marsol became an international name on the picturebook scene in a few short years. Translated into eight languages, his work has received the prestigious International Illustration Award of Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Ibero-American Catalogue Award, the Amadora Comics Award in Portugal, as well as the Pépite Livre Illustré, and the Prix Sorcières Awards in France.

After graduating in Advertising and Audio-visual Communications, Manuel worked for three years on a creative advertising team - his work acknowledged at Cannes and San Sebastian - before turning full time to illustration and obtaining a Masters in Illustration for Children from Barcelona’s EINA. His first book, Ahab and the White Whale (2014) won the Edelvives Illustrated Album Award.

In Spain, most of Manuel’s work is published by Fulgencio Pimental. Titles include El tiempo del Gigante (2016), Yôkai (2017), Duelo al Sol (2018), and Mvsevm (2019). His latest book, Un par de ojos nuevos (Wonder Ponder, 2022), written by Ellen Duthie, was illustrated together with Javier Sáez Castán. Manuel has also illustrated novels like Kafka’s The Metamorphosis (Astro Rey 2015), La Venus de las Pieles by Sacher-Masoch (Sexto Piso 2016), and Robinson Crusoe (Alma 2022), as well as covers for Anagrama, Babelia (El País), Libros del K.O, Barrett, and articles for the journal Líbero.

Manuel also holds talks, workshops and has exhibited in many shows at venues like the Caixa Forum (Madrid), Taipei Book Fair (Taiwan), Fotokino (France), BD in Bastia (France), FIL (Guadalajara, Mexico), Fundação José Saramago (Lisbon), The Croatian Biennial of Illustration, Croatia, the Almería Western Film Festival, and the Festival de Narrativas Cuéntalo (Logroño). His work is also featured in Picturebook Makers (dPICTUS 2022) together with 11 other internationally renowned picturebook authors.