Briony Stewart


Briony Stewart is an Australian writer and illustrator of children's books.
Stewart's first book Kumiko and the Dragon was published by University of Queensland Press after winning the inaugural Voices on the Coast Youth Literature Festival writing award. Inspired by Stewart's Japanese grandmother, Kumiko and the Dragon won the Aurealis Award for Best Children's Short Fiction, and was listed as a Notable book by the Children's Book Council of Australia in 2008. Two sequels, Kumiko and the Dragon's Secret and Kumiko and the Shadow Catchers completed the series as a trilogy. Both books continues Kumiko's fantasy adventure, with similar references to folktale and Japanese mythology.
In 2012 Stewart's book Kumiko and the Shadow Catchers won in the Queensland Literary Awards Children's Book category.
Stewarts first picture book, The Red Wheelbarrow was published by University of Queensland Press in 2012. A wordless picture book inspired by the famous poem by William Carlos Williams, celebrating the beauty in small everyday moments. The book was shortlisted in the Australian Speech Pathology, Book of the Year Awards, was a CBCA notable book, and in 2015 was selected by the International Board of Books for Young People to be part of its international silent books project, a travelling exhibition which was launched on June 2015 in Rome at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Stewart published a second picture book in 2014 entitled Here in the Garden, a gentle book about loss and grief and acceptance as experienced by a child. Since the birth of her children in 2015 and 2017, Stewart has collaborated as illustrator on a number of different titles.