BIO

Brooklyn born Cozbi A. Cabrera is a children’s book author/illustrator and artist. She is the author and illustrator of My Hair is a Garden and received a Caldecott Honor and a Coretta Scott King Honor for her children’s book Me & Mama. Her star reviewed titles that she illustrated include Chef Edna: Queen of Southern Cooking written by Melvina Noel, Brown Girl, Brown Girl by Leslé Honoré, Exquisite: The Poetry and Life of Gwendolyn Brooks by Suzanne Slade which garnered an ALA Sibert Informational Honor and Coretta Scott King Honor. Trained as an art director, this Parsons School of Design grad left her dream job creating music packaging in NY (art direction and design for artists such as Yo-Yo Ma and platinum selling artist Ginuwine) to create handmade collectible cloth dolls she calls Muñecas, in honor of her Honduran heritage. Her dolls were featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Martha Stewart Living, Land of Nod catalogue and many US networks. She’s been a decade long shop owner – designing, pattern making and constructing clothing while employing a team of tailors and seamstresses. Her textile work has been in solo exhibitions at the Jewish Fund Gallery, Ernest Rubenstein Galleries and the Lincoln Center Education Art Gallery. Her dolls, quilts and paintings exhibited concurrently with the Gees Bend Quilts at the Myrtle Beach Art Museum (2017). She was a Beinecke Fellow at Yale University 2022- 2023, a Maurice Sendak Fellow in 2024, the 2025 Illinois Prairie State Award winner. Her solo show, Together, Again is currently being exhibited at the Longwood University Arts Center. She continues to work on community quilting projects that trace a sense of place and memory. Cozbi lives in Evanston, IL with her husband and daughter.