Zeke Peña

Zeke Peña is a Xicano cartoonist, illustrator, and storyteller from El Paso, Texas, who studied art history at the University of Texas at Austin and is largely self-taught as a studio artist. His work often explores themes of American history, border culture, folklore, and social justice, drawing on his experiences growing up in the U.S.–Mexico border region.

Peña illustrated the acclaimed picture book My Papi Has a Motorcycle by Isabel Quintero, for which he received Ezra Jack Keats and Pura Belpré Illustration Honors. He earned the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award for his illustrations in Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide, and he is also the illustrator of the New York Times bestseller Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel. Peña made his author-illustrator debut with the picture book Sundust, a work described as a love poem to desert people and culture.