About this Event
Rizzoli Bookstore and the MFA of Illustration as Visual Essay Program at the School of Visual Arts are delighted to partner with the Italian Cultural Institute to host Felicita Sala and Mac Barnett, as a part of the Zig Zag Illustrations Festival, NYC, June 8 - 12, 2026.
This is part of a five-day program, curated by Hamelin and Steven Guarnaccia in collaboration with the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
As a visual bridge between Italy and the U.S., some of the best Italian and American illustrators gather in New York City for a visual dialogue uniting both sides of the Atlantic.
Felicita Sala and Mac Barnett will be in conversation with Ilaria Tontardini (Hamelin).
The discussion will be followed by the presentation of La Porta Segreta / Make Believe: On Telling Stories to Children with Mac Barnett, Giulia Rizzo (Terre di Mezzo) and Sally Kim (Little Brown and Company) alongside a book signing.
On the occasion of ZIG ZAG Color me Italian — catch a glimpse of our window display created by Alison Spring supported by Rizzoli Bookstore and the MFA of Illustration as Visual Essay Program at the School of Visual Arts from June 5 - 11, 2026.
Mac Barnett, the 2025–2026 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, is a New York Times best-selling author of stories for children. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages and sold more than five million copies worldwide. Mac Barnett’s books have won many prizes, including two Caldecott Honors, three New York Times / New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Book Awards, three E. B. White Read-Aloud Awards, the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award, Germany’s Jugendliteraturpreis, China’s Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Award, the Netherlands’ Zilveren Griffel, and Italy’s Premio Orbil. He is the cocreator, with Jon Klassen, of the Substack Looking at Picture Books, as well as Shape Island, a stop-motion animated series on Apple TV+, based on their best-selling Shapes series of picture books. Mac Barnett lives in Oakland, California.
Felicita Sala is a self taught illustrator who studied Philosophy at the University of Western Australia. She has worked on several animation projects, but her passion is making picture books. Felicita lives in Rome with her husband and their daughter. Visit her online at FelicitaSala.com, FelicitaSala.blogspot.com, and Instagram.com/felicita.sala/
Ilaria Tontardini teaches History of Illustration at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna. Since 2005 she is part of Hamelin Cultural Association, where she works as a curator and develops projects on comics and illustration. She is one of the organizer of BilBOlbul.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Rizzoli Bookstore, 1133 Broadway, New York, United States
USD 0.00
