![Lawrence Schimel](/files/styles/crop_speaker_detail/public/media/image/Lawrence%20Schimel_470x470px.jpg?itok=7IuD4ccn)
© Nieves Guerra
Lawrence Schimel
Lawrence Schimel (New York, 1971) is a full-time author, writing in both Spanish and English, based in Madrid, Spain, who has published over 130 books in a wide range of genres. His picture books have won a Crystal Kite Award from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, a White Raven from the International Youth Library in Munich, and have been chosen by IBBY for Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities (three times), among other honors. His writings have been translated into over sixty languages, including Welsh, Scots, Icelandic, Maltese, Farsi, Kurdish, Basque, Luxembourgish, Changana, Romansch, and Xhosa. In addition to his own writing, he is a prolific literary translator, primarily into English and into Spanish, who has published over 160 books. His translations into English have won a Batchelder Honor from the American Library Association, a PEN Translates Award from English PEN (three times), and a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship (with Layla Benitez-James), among other honors. He is also the publisher of poetry press A Midsummer Night's Press, and regularly gives talks and workshops at festivals, conferences, and universities across the globe.