The Maurice Sendak Foundation has announced this year’s Sendak Fellows: Junjun Chen, Marianna Coppo, Rob Dunlavey, and Gracey Zhang.
The four-week fellowship, which runs from May 12 to June 8, will once again take place at Sendak’s former home in Ridgefield, Conn. (it was held at Milkwood Farm in the Catskills in 2023 and 2024). It comes with a prize of $5,000. During the residency, artists will focus on a project of their choosing, meet with visiting artists and professionals in the field, and explore Sendak’s house and archives.
Originally from China, Junjun Chen is a visual designer and illustrator based in New York. Marianna Coppo is the creator of more than a dozen books, including Petra, which was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and The Book That Can Read Your Mind; she lives in Rome. From Natick, Mass., Rob Dunlavey is the illustrator of In the Woods by David Elliott and Whale Fall by Melissa Stewart, a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, and currently based in New York, Gracey Zhang is the author-illustrator of Lala’s Words, winner of the 2022 Ezra Jack Keats Illustrator Award, and Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear, for which she received a 2025 Caldecott Honor.
Sendak established the fellowship in 2009—with the help of his longtime assistant Lynn Caponera, alongside photographer and community activist Dona Ann McAdams—as a space for artists to “create work that is not vapid, stupid, or sexy, but original. Work that excites and incites.” Previous fellows include Harry Bliss, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Terry and Eric Fan, Yuyi Morales, Sergio Ruzzier, Doug Salati, and Sara Varon, among others.
“We’re so pleased to return the fellowship to Maurice’s home and archive in Ridgefield,” Caponera said in a statement. “He loved sharing his work and the work of other artists that inspired him. We continue this with the fellowship. Although Maurice is no longer with us, the fellows always come away feeling as though Maurice is here guiding them in what he feels makes a great picture book. Maurice would be delighted to have us welcome these four fellows into his world.”
