Jeska Verstegen
illustrator
Website
Represented by Victoria Wells Arms
Jeska Verstegen has worked as an illustrator for many years. Recently, she has focused on creating only things which make her happy, a focus that has allowed her to find her own voice and for her newer work to resonate with people all over the world. In 2020 she published her first novel, I'll Keep You Close, which was published in the Netherlands by Querido and in the US by Levine Querido; in a starred review, Kirkus said, "Setting this book apart from other Holocaust survivor stories are the language and imagery, a family story that focuses on very young children, the Dutch setting, and the attempts of a sensitive young person to understand mystifying adult behavior and PTSD—in its specificity, it finds the universal. Multigenerational trauma artfully revealed from a child’s point of view." In 2023, Jeska was one of the winners of The New York Times/New York Public Library Best Illustrated Children’s Books award for her illustrations of Bear is Never Alone (by Marc Veerkamp, Eerdmans, 2023). In January 2024, The New York Times published the sketches of her trip to New York City on Back Page of the Book Review section. She was also recently nominated for two Woutertje Pieterse Awards in The Netherlands, and for the Boon Literary award in Belgium. Jeska lives and works in Amsterdam.
