Maia Walczak is a self-taught artist, author and multi award-winning children’s book illustrator based in Cornwall, UK. Meandering through forests, oceans, outer space and inner space, her work is an ode to the natural world, a love song to life, and a celebration of compassion, connection, and the interconnectedness of all things. But above all it’s an attempt to express the inexpressible: the mind-blowing mystery of this thing we call life, and the indescribable and deeply sensed experience of wonder and awe at the fact that something called existence exists.
There could have just been nothing, yet here we are.
Publications and Awards
2021 – Engine House VFX created and released a short animation based on Maia's children's book Wylder.
2019 – publication of Wylder, a silent picture book by Maia. Wylder was featured in magazines such as Psychologies Magazine, Absolutely Mama Magazine, Juno Magazine, and Cornwall Today.
2018 - Bronze Junior Design Award in Best Designed/Illustrated Book for Children for The Magical Wood by Mark Lemon, illustrated by Maia.
2017 – publication of One Stormy Winter, a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Maia.
2016 - Platinum Junior Design Award in Children’s Book of The Year for Otis Lemon & The Spectacular Submarine by Mark Lemon, illustrated by Maia.
2015 – publication of the revised editions of four of Maia’s silent picture books: The Silent Red Book, The Silent Blue Book, The Girl with The Yellow Bag and Stray.
2015 – publication of The Wishing Well, a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Maia.
2014 – Maia’s debut novel, The Colour Black was published by Jacaranda Books.
2012 – publication of The Black Hat, a children’s picture book written and illustrated by Maia.
2011 - Maia started creating her first series of Silent Books – picture books without words – which gained international popularity and are used in schools the world over to encourage writing and creativity in children, as well as to help in language learning and speech therapy. The books have taken her on school visits all around the world.