Join award-winning creators Álvaro Ortiz and Ledicia Costas for a hands-on workshop where kids learn the best tricks to bring characters to life—on paper and in words! Combining storytelling and drawing, this fun-filled session helps children explore how to shape unforgettable characters in both literature and comics.

Starting with beloved characters such as La pequeña genia and Escarlatina, Álvaro and Ledicia will show how a protagonist is born. Children will then get the chance to invent their own drawing from descriptions and imagining descriptions from illustrations, in a playful back-and-forth of words and pictures.

A workshop designed to spark imagination and creativity, perfect for budding young storytellers and artists.

Speakers/Authors:Álvaro Ortiz and Ledicia Costas Moderator: Juan Garcia

Why join us?

Learn from two renowned voices in children’s literature and comics.

Create and imagine your own characters in a fun, interactive way.

Discover how words and drawings can come together to tell stories.

Álvaro Ortiz (Zaragoza, 1983) studied Graphic Design at the Escuela Superior de Diseño de Aragón and Illustration at the Escola Massana in Barcelona.

La pequeña genia y la partida de shatranj (2022) marked his first foray into children’s comics. The book won the award for Best Children’s Comic at the Valencia Comic Fair and Best Work at the Zaragoza Comic Fair. In 2024, he published its sequel, La pequeña genia y el monstruo del valle, which received the award for Best Children’s Comic at the Barcelona Comic Fair.

In Spain, his comics have been published by Astiberri, and several have also been released in countries such as France, Italy, Germany, Poland, and the United States. Last year, Ashes (the English translation of Cenizas) was nominated for the prestigious Harvey and Eisner Awards.

Ledicia Costas Álvarez (Vigo, 1979), is one of the most recognised authors of the Galician literature. Her works have been translated to languages like Persian, Korean, Italian or Bulgarian among others. In 2025, her novel Infamia will be published in Germany.

Her first novel, Unha estrela no vento, was published in 2000. Since then, she has published thirty-eight works in Galician and Spanish that are constantly reedited, so much of CYL as for poetry, in Edicións Xerais of Galicia, Anaya, Destino or Nórdica Libros, among the more notable Spanish publishers.

In the field of the CYL she recieved important recognitions like the National Prize of Childish and Juvenile Literature conceded in 2015 by the Ministry of culture by her work Escarlatina, la cocinera cadáver. She also won twice the Prize Merlín of Childish Literature and she is the only person in the history of the Reward Lazarillo (the dean of CYL in Spain) who attained to win it in three occasions, the last ond in 2022 with La liebre mecánica.

Career Highlights of the moderator Juan García is a linguist and teacher of English, German and Spanish, with a solid international background. Educated in Germany, England, and Ireland, he has taught at various German universities and is currently the Director of Studies at a renowned language school in Frankfurt.