Salimeh Babakhan born in 1986 in IRAN. From her childhood years she has been in love with the wonderful world of painting and imagination. Salimeh graduated with a master’s degree in illustration from Tehran University of Art. Since then, She discovered a deep passion for visual storytelling and illustrating picture books on her heart and mind.
Salimeh is one of the seven young illustrators in the inter-cultural project for producing quality picture books for “Read with Me” program (The Dialogue Between Two Diverse Worlds). The project is being implemented since 2015 by Marit Törnqvist, the renowned Swedish-Dutch illustrator, as the art director, and also Zohreh Ghaeini, the Iranian researcher and reading promoter.
Her cooperation with this project has resulted in the production of two books, including “18+2 Woodpeckers” and “The Color of the Crow’s Dream”. The former book has been nominated and appreciated for several illustrations award and published in Farsi and Turkish. The second book will be published by Querido (Netherland) in 2024.
“Little Whale’s Big Dream” is her first picture book that is written and illustrated by herself and published by TUTI Books in 2021 and will be published Arabic edition soon.
Her illustrations have won or been nominated in competitions such as White Ravens list, Golden Pen of Belgrade, Cow Festival, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, AFCC, Image of the Book, Little Hakka and Brightness Award; and have also been shown in exhibitions in several countries such as Iran, South Korea, United States, France, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, China and Russia.
She works on 3 fields of illustration:
Picture books, textile design and wooden toys!
She sees art as a way for coping with life and overcoming troubles in the world such as inequality and human suffering. Salimeh creates artistic works with the hope that one day, all children would be safe from war and violence and experience peace and freedom in their lives.
Honors and Awards
2024 Finalist at Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Italy
2023 WHITE RAVENS list, The International Youth Library, Germany
2023 Nominated at Golden Pen of Belgrade, Serbia
2023 Winner (Laureates) at Image of the book, Russia
2023 Sellected for Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC), Singapore
2022 Selected for The Flying Turtle, Iran
2021 Finalist at BOLOGNA Children’s Book Fair, Italy
2021 Nominated at Golden Pen of Belgrade, Serbia
2021 Winner (Laureates) at Image of the book, Russia
2020 Nominated at the COW ILLUSTRATION BIENNALE, Ukraine
2020 Nominated at Brightness International Picture Book Award, IRAN
2020 Diploma Winner at image of the book, Russia
2019 Nominated at Little Hakka International Picture Book Award, China
2019 Appreciated at National Environmental Illustration Competition, Ahvvaz, IRAN
2017 Appreciated at the “I am too” illustration competition with the subject of Blood Donation, Tehran, Iran
2016 Chosen for the Fourth Mohtasham Art and Literature Award, Tehran, Iran
2016 Chosen for the Nafs Festival, Iranian Artists Forum, Tehran, Iran
2014 Chosen for the 6th Fajr International Festival of Visual Arts, Tehran, Iran, 2014
2013 Winner of the Second Ashura Mourning, Rasht Municipality, Iran
2011 Chosen for Expose Photo Festival, under the auspices of the FIAP, PSA, FZS, Slovenia
2010 Chosen for Scenic City of America Photo Festival (SCIPE) under the auspices of FIAP, American Photographic Association PSA, USA
Order Farsi Edition of my books from Hodhod Book Store in IRAN!
Copyrights:
All materials are under copyright. No part of these pages may be used for any purpose unless explicit authorization by Salimeh Babakhan.
Therefore, reproduction, modification, storage in a retrieval system or retransmission, in any form or by any means is prohibited without prior written permission.
The photo(s) used for the Home page are © Salimeh Babakhan 2024
For publishing inquiries, please reach out to Lili Haeri at Kia Literary Agency!
Thank you!
For all other inquiries and “Children’s reading aloud workshop” request Please send email. Thank you! Salimeh
Sali.babakhan@gmail.com
