The Great Blue Heron and the Blue Whale

Görkem Özen Çömez was born in Germany in 1978 and graduated from Bilkent University. In a world woven with dreams, she follows the traces of words, colors, and light. She loves reading, writing, designing, the quiet moments of photography, and the diverse forms of artistic expression. She has been creating at LastRender Art Studios, where she is a co-founder, since 2007, and has continued her work in publishing through AYO Yayınları since 2019.

Çağrı Odabaşı was born in 1987. Several of his illustrated books, including "The Lonely Panda" which he both wrote and illustrated, have been translated into English, French, Chinese, Hindi, Croatian, and Arabic, and published in over 20 countries including the USA, China, Canada, Switzerland, France, Belgium, India, Lebanon, Croatia, and Egypt. He received the 2019 Aydın Doğan Foundation National Children's Book Illustration Success Award and the 2021 Brightness Mag. exhibition awards. He was nominated for the 2022 Le Prix Escapages in France. In his books, he aims to bring specific issues children face while integrating into social life to the reader through their own eyes. He currently continues his projects in Istanbul, focusing on illustration work produced with traditional techniques.