Vasanti Unka is a picture book creator — she writes, designs and illustrates books for children. Vasanti hails from a potato patch in Pukekohe. Over many years, and after wiping the dirt from her fingernails, she has trained in various fields, including design and creative writing, and is now a Jack of all trades (master of some).

Over the years her work has won many awards. Her book, The Boring Book, was the New Zealand Post Margaret Mahy Book of the Year for 2014 and won the Best Picture Book award.  The judges described it as “a remarkable book that exceeds any expectations of its genre. It exhibits the highest quality of design and its presentation is thoroughly original. The story takes delightful unexpected turns that charm afresh with each reading. Small children and older readers alike will be delighted by its subversive touches and entertained by its warmth and fun.” It also won international acclaim with its inclusion in the 2014 White Ravens Catalogue and in 2016 was named an IBBY Honour Book for the excellence of its illustrations.

Vasanti is the illustrator of Hill & Hole by Kyle Mewburn, which was shortlisted for the Best Picture Book award at the 2011 New Zealand Post Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. Hill & Hole won the LIANZA Russell Clark Award the same year and was also the first children’s book to win the Gerard Reid Award for Best Book at the PANZ Book Design Awards. Stripes! No, Spots!, published by Puffin in 2015, was lauded as a 2016 Storylines Notable Picture Book and was simultaneously published in the UK and US. Who Stole the Rainbow?, a humorous, genre-spanning scientific mystery-thriller for children about how rainbows appear and disappear, was published in 2018. It was a finalist for the Best Picture Book category of the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults 2019. I am the Universe, published in 2020, won the 2021 NZSA Heritage Literary Award and the New Zealand Booklovers Award for Best Children’s Book. It was shortlisted for the New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults Russell Clark Award for Illustration 2021. The judges praised its ‘wonderful illustrations’ and ‘vibrant descriptions … the themes are particularly poignant as they remind us of our universal connectivity.’ I am the Universe went on to win the PANZ Book Design Awards Best Children’s Book 2021 and was a finalist in the Best Typography category. Judge Ant Sang called it ‘…a book which readers can enjoy over and over, and find something new to discover each time. Fun and imaginative throughout, the large format perfectly suits the scale of the subject. Readers can’t help but feel transported on a joyous journey from the first to last page.’ My Elephant is Blue, published in 2021, was written by Melinda Syzmanik and illustrated by Vasanti; it has been published in six countries around the world including the US.

In August 2021 Vasanti was also awarded the Arts Foundation Mallinson Rendel Laureate Award for Illustration. Vasanti lives in Auckland, New Zealand, where she juggles design work, author school visits, creative work and numerous book projects.