Illustrator and children’s book author Calef Brown studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He is the author and illustrator of Polkabats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories (1998), a collection of story poems that won the Marion Vannett Ridgeway Award for Poetry; Dutch Sneakers and Fleakeepers: 14 More Stories (2000), a Parents’ Choice Recommended Winner; Tippintown: A Guided Tour (2003); Flamingoes on the Roof: Poems and Paintings (2006), winner of the Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry and a 2007 Children’s Book Council Choice; Soup for Breakfast: Poems and Pictures (2008); and Hallowilloween: Nefarious Silliness (2010). Using engaging and nonsensical characters, Brown crafts narrative story-poems using a jazzy beat. In interviews, he has cited wordplay, dreams, and the rhythms of music as inspirations.

A well-known illustrator, Brown carries a notebook for daily sketching and has illustrated the work of a variety of authors, including Daniel Pinkwater, Edward Lear, and Jonah Winter. Brown’s illustrations have also appeared in Newsweek, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, Time, and Travel + Leisure. He has taught illustration at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and the Maine College of Art in Portland.