Born in Germany and raised in New York City, Vesper Stamper writes and illustrates novels which tell, through both words and pictures, stories of history’s rhymes. Her debut illustrated YA novel, What the Night Sings, about the aftermath of the Holocaust through the eyes of a young musician, was a National Book Award Nominee, a National Jewish Book Award Finalist, a Morris Award Finalist, Golden Kite Honor Book and Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner, and was named one of the Best YA Books of 2018/9 by YALSA, the Wall Street Journal and Kirkus. She also illustrates picture books for the younger set.

Vesper has a BFA in Illustration from Parsons and an MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay from School of Visual Arts and is the host of the podcast Vesperisms: The Art of Thinking for Yourself, which aims to cultivate a rehumanized worldview through artistic thinking, and speaks at conferences and institutions at home and abroad. She lives with her husband, filmmaker Ben Stamper, in the Northeast, and teaches illustration at School of Visual Arts.

Education
BFA Illustration, Parsons School of Design, NYC
MFA in Illustration as Visual Essay, School of Visual Arts, NYC
LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, NYC (Visual Art)

Awards/Grants
FAIR in the Arts Fellow
Golden Kite Award Finalist
National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Young Adult Literature
National Book Award Nominee in Young People’s Literature
Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner
William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
Golden Kite Honor Book
TENT Children’s Book Residency, Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA
People’s Choice Finalist, Lilla Rogers Global Talent Search
Lincoln City Fellowship, Speranza Foundation (2x)
Center for Faith and Work Artist-in-Residence, NYC
SCBWI New Jersey Juried Show Grand Prize (2x)
SCBWI New Jersey People’s Choice
School of Visual Arts MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department Scholarship
American Illustration 39, 41, 42
Jury Member, Illustrators 65
Creative Quarterly 45-46
St. Andrew's Society of Washington, DC Scholar

Starred Reviews/Lists
Kirkus
Publisher's Weekly
School Library Journal
Booklist
Horn Book
Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Book
White Raven Book (Internationale Jugendbibliothek)
TAYSHAS Selection (Texas Library Association)
Oklahoma Sequoyah Award Selection

Exhibitions
Proverbs, Poems, Promises, Messiah University (group)
Agora @ 150 W83: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
14th Street Y: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Hadas Gallery & Synagogue: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Walnut Hill Community Church: The Art of What the Night Sings (solo)
Parsons School of Design Alumni Show
School of Visual Arts MFA Thesis Show
School of Visual Arts MFA Book Show
The Breath & The Clay Creative Conference
All Angels Church Gallery
Mikhail Zakin Gallery

Select Clients
Alfred A. Knopf (Penguin Random House)
Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
Christy Ottaviano Books (Little, Brown/Hachette)
Holiday House Books
Bloomsbury Children’s Books
Random House Studio Books (Penguin Random House)
ModCloth
Society of Visual Storytelling

Memberships
Society of Illustrators
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Author’s Guild
Heterodox Academy
FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression)
FAIR (Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism); FAIR in the Arts

Speaking
Morgan Library, NYC
School of Visual Arts, NYC
Pratt College, NYC
Vassar College, NY
American Library Association
Yiddish Book Center
Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
Miami Book Fair
92nd Street Y, NYC
14th Street Y, NYC
Association of Jewish Libraries
Hutchmoot Arts Conference, TN
Harbor Springs Festival of the Book
Sam Fox School, Washington University, St. Louis
Gordon College
Books by the Banks Festival, Cincinnati
Touchstone Conference, Chicago, IL
BASE Hillel, NYC
…And many more high schools, colleges, bookstores, conferences and community organizations!