Authors + illustrators

Yerkes-Jennifer

Jennifer Yerkes

Jennifer was born in Minneapolis and lived in Turkey as a little girl, before moving back to the United States, where she grew up in Iowa City, surrounded by her large family, friends, art, books, and greenery. She studied design and art history at universities in the U.S., Austria, Hungary, and Scotland, before settling in Strasbourg, France, where she works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, teaches, and occasionally dreams of becoming a racecar driver—though she’s never owned a car!

A Funny Little Bird, Jennifer’s first book, was originally published in France and has been translated into six languages, including English. It was honored with the gold medal at the Society of Illustrators’ 2013 Original Art exhibit, an annual event that celebrates the year’s best children’s book art, and was also a finalist for the Opera Prima award, which recognizes gifted debut artists, at the 2012 Bologna Children’s Book Fair. And as some of you may have guessed, Jennifer is also the creator of Rising Bear’s logo and website illustrations.

To see a sampling of Jennifer’s books and illustrations, visit her portfolio.

And to check out more of her work, go to Jennifer’s website.