Anna Billington author page

Anna Billington biography

Anna Billington is a children’s book illustrator and MA student in Children’s Book Illustration at the University of Lancashire. Before returning to study, she worked in early years education as a special educational needs and disabilities teaching assistant.

Her illustration work uses nature, connection, local environments, storytelling and character-led scenes as recurring themes. In 2026, she was shortlisted for the inaugural Children’s Books North Network Prize, a picture-book illustration prize for unpublished illustrators based in the North of England.

The prize was run in partnership with New Writing North as part of the Northern Writers’ Awards. Billington was shortlisted alongside Kate Muldowney, Lauren Hubbert, Lauren Sharples, Matilda Robertson and Satomi Yamamiya. All six shortlisted illustrators received mentoring from published illustrators and Children’s Books North Network members.

Billington’s shortlisted work for the 2026 Children’s Books North Network Prize was created in response to Corrinne Averiss’s text Fabulous Frank.