In-Person event: West meets East: Sharing craft and perspective on children’s literature from two countries, Wales and Japan.
Nov 01, 2025
Kobe Center Plaza, Japan
SCBWI Japan In-person event: Kobe Center Plaza Nov. 1st 10:30~12:00
Where: Kobe Center Plaza West, 6th floor, Room 11
When: Saturday, November 1, 10:30 – 12:00
Cost: Free
SCBWI Japan is happy to welcome Welsh-based illustrators, Valériane Leblond and Liz Fenwick, together with Alexandra Büchler, Director of Literature Across Frontiers (LAF), to talk about their picture book collaboration with renowned Japanese children’s book creator, Yoshifumi Hasegawa. Valériane and Liz are representing Welsh children’s book writers and illustrators as part of the yearlong Welsh government initiative Wales Japan Year 2025, celebrating the ties between the two countries.
This children’s literature project entitled ‘A Tale of Two Dragons: Connecting Wales and Japan through stories for children’, has developed through a series of workshops with the goal of creating a multilingual book on friendship, to be published in Japanese, Welsh and English.*
The project will be presented in a public event on the 3rd of November in the Osaka Central Library, where they will also run a picture-book making workshop with children the day before.
Before the public event, SCBWI members and friends have the opportunity to find out more about the project and its development from Valériane, Liz and Alexandra, as well as joining an open discussion to share, compare, and contrast the landscape of children’s literature in Japan, Wales and other countries represented by our members.
Please make sure to register to attend. Further details will be sent out after registration.
Additionally, if you’re in the area, it is highly recommended that you take the time to visit the Kobe Children’s Book Forest. This beautiful library was designed and donated to Kobe city by world renowned architect Tadao Ando. Reservations are required for entry and weekends fill up fast, so please register on the website.
Valériane Leblond
Valériane Leblond is a Quebec-born French artist and illustrator now living in Aberystwyth, Wales. She combines her passion for books and painting, focusing on themes of home and belonging in her award-winning picture books. Fluent in Welsh she has illustrated over fifteen books, including The Quilt, an illustrated edition of Welsh legends The Mabinogi, Wales on the Map, and a Welsh-English Picture Dictionary Valériane is currently learning Japanese, is preparing for her participation in the Wales-Japan Year.
Liz Fenwick
Liz Fenwick is a Welsh illustrator and graphic designer based in Machynlleth. With a theatre design background, she has worked as a scenographer and lecturer and now focuses on community and cultural heritage projects including a recent project with Cymdeithas Enwau Lleoedd Cymru (The Welsh Place-Name Society) Liz was commissioned to design three large scale illustrative banners to map and preserve the landscape and place names along the River Dyfi. Liz also works in a bookshop located on the site of Wales’s first Parliament in Machynlleth, and her love of children’s books and storytelling have inspired her to turn her illustrations and her pictorial maps into ideas for children’s stories. She is currently completing her first Welsh-language book, ‘Michio a Hana’, about a Welsh girl and a Japanese snow monkey.
Project Organisers
* The ‘Tale of Two Dragons: Connecting Wales and Japan through stories for children’ project is organised by Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) and Wales Literature Exchange (WLE) in cooperation with International Institute for Children’s Literature Osaka (IICLO) and Japan Board on Books for Young People (JBBY) with support from the Arts Council of Wales/Wales Arts International, British Council Wales and Welsh Government through the Wales and Japan 2025 Cultural Fund.