Elly MacKay

Elly MacKay is an internationally recognized paper artist and children’s book author and illustrator whose work is distinguished by its light-filled, three-dimensional scenes created from layered, painted paper arranged in a miniature theater and then photographed. She is the author–illustrator of several acclaimed picture books, including If You Hold a Seed, Butterfly Park, Red Sky at Night, Shadow Chasers, Fall Leaves, Frostfire, and In the Clouds, and she has illustrated books for other writers such as Zap! Clap! Boom!: The Story of a Thunderstorm by Laura Purdie Salas, The Enchanted Symphony by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton, and titles by Kallie George.

MacKay studied printmaking and illustration at NSCAD University in Halifax and at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and also holds a Bachelor of Education from Nipissing University. Before focusing on picture books, she worked as a teacher in schools and as an educator in galleries. Raised in a converted church in rural Ontario by artist parents, she began creating and even selling paper-cut-out and tunnel books as a teenager, experience that led to her current “paper worlds” style. She lives with her family in