Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan is an Australian author-illustrator known internationally for his distinctive visual narratives that blend surrealist imagery with profound thematic depth. His book Tales from the Inner City (2018) won the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2020. He is also the winner of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (2011) and Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for The Lost Thing (2011). Tan's most celebrated work is The Arrival (2006), a wordless graphic novel about an immigrant's experience in a fantastical new world, which has been praised as one of the greatest picture books ever created. Other major works include The Red Tree, The Lost Thing, and Rules of Summer. Tan was born in Fremantle, Western Australia, to a Malaysian Chinese father and Australian mother. He studied fine arts and English literature at the University of Western Australia. His work addresses displacement, belonging, memory, and the strangeness of the modern world with extraordinary visual imagination.