Introducing Your New Regional Team

Our previous Illustrator Coordinator, Emily House, has moved into the Regional Advisor position and our super-talented illustrator member, Elizabeth Sparg, has been recruited to take Emily’s old position. Yvette de Beer will remain as our trusty Assistant Regional Advisor. Yvette is still relatively new to the role too and will, amongst other things, continue championing all our activity in Gauteng. Go Team!

Although many of you may already be familiar with our team members, we thought this would be a great opportunity to share a little bit about the people behind the roles.

Emily has always been in the business of telling stories whether it be as a music festival producer, a broadcast video editor, a copywriter or branding designer. But it’s only recently that she has started to realise her childhood dream of telling stories for children. With her first story drafted and a handful of rough illustrations in hand, Emily attended her first SCBWI meeting in 2019 and hasn’t looked back since. 

She now has several published titles as author-illustrator, with her picture book, Bailey and Blanket, earning a SCBWI Crystal Kite Award in 2023 and her most recent title, Treemergency!, a 2024 Crystal Kite Finalist. Emily’s self-authored books have been translated into various languages and she’s illustrated numerous stories for other authors too.

Born in England and raised on the Norfolk coast, Emily has lived in South Africa for over a decade—even though her original intention was only to stay for a year! She works from home in sunny Cape Town surrounded by many half-finished cups of tea made lovingly by her ever-patient husband. Emily is a proud mum to two awesome humans, reluctant dog mum to two trying hounds and tolerant cat mum to the one and only Queen Muffin.When the weekend arrives you’ll often find her seeking refreshment and inspiration as she explores the local mountain trails or participating in a cathartic, laughter-educing singing session with her fellow rock choir friends. 

As Regional Advisor, Emily hopes to build on the fantastic foundations laid by her predecessors —cultivating a warm, welcoming and creative environment for all members and supporting them as they pursue their careers in children’s publishing.

Emily is represented by Erzsi Deak at Hen & Ink Literary Studios. Learn more about Emily at emilyhousedesign.com.

Elizabeth (Liz) Sparg is an illustrator from Durban, South Africa. She has a BA degree majoring in Fine Art and Psychology and worked as a freelance graphic designer and website developer for more than ten years before focusing on a career in illustration. In 2021 she was selected as a regional winner for the Picture This! Award, and in 2022 she completed her first picture book as illustrator for a self-publishing author. Liz is currently illustrating and designing her 8th picture book for independent authors. She works traditionally with acrylic gouache and coloured pencils, then scans and edits in Photoshop.

Liz has been an SCBWI member since 2018 and has attended many SCBWI events online and in person. Highlights include the Korky Paul workshop in Johannesburg (2019), and the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA (also 2019). She has been the SCBWI SA volunteer webmaster since 2023. As Illustrator Coordinator, she hopes to maintain the wonderful sense of community our illustration group has as well and provide support and learning experiences for our members.

Liz is represented in the US by illustration agent Kyle Williams at Wendy Lynn & Co.

You can see more of her work on her website at elizabethsparg.com

Yvette de Beer has been a SCBWI member since 2007,and has worked in the Art and Illustration industry since 1996. She is the founder of Exentric Artists Creative studio in Witbank Mpumalanga and graduated from the University of Pretoria with a BA (ED) Art IV degree in 1994. She has worked in various fields of the fine arts, including large-scale mosaics for corporate clients, the hospitality industry and private clients, paintings and bespoke art pieces. She has worked on various illustration projects for the educational, private, corporate and medical fields. She also has a handmade leather handbag range with a vintage feel called Exentric Bags. Yvette has hosted many workshops focusing on creative thinking, art, mosaic, and leather work, and gives weekly art classes to ladies. However her biggest passion is for children’s books and her main focus at the moment is specialising in illustration.

Recently Yvette has illustrated the first book in a seven-book series called OpieG goes to SouthAfrica. This title has been distributed in the USA and in South Africa as well as being translated into Afrikaans. The second book, OpieG goes to Israel, is in the last stages of editing. She is also in the process of marketing her own stories to publishers and agents. 

Yvette is married and has two children at university, they have a family business and she works fulltime. She is an early riser, and you can normally see her working in her studio at 4 in the morning.

Find out more about Yvette’s work at exart.co.za and on Instagram @exentricartists and @exentricbags

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