R. Gregory Christie, award-winning artist and educator
R. Gregory Christie is an award-winning artist and educator whose work spans children’s books, jazz album covers and fine art. He received the 2026 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for The Library in the Woods. His honors also include a Caldecott Honor, an NAACP Image Award, six Coretta Scott King Honors, the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Museum of Tolerance’s Once Upon a World Award, and nominations for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Over three decades he has illustrated more than 70 books and created art for John Coltrane, Joe Sample, Kenny Barron, Regina King, and Karyn Parsons’ Sweet Blackberry. The family of Bill Withers sought him out to illustrate Grandma’s Hands. His work has appeared in The New Yorker and Time Magazine, and he designed the 2013 Kwanzaa stamp for the U.S. Postal Service and a New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival poster.
Based in the Atlanta area, Christie brings family-friendly lectures and hands-on workshops on art, literacy and history to schools, libraries and conferences.
20 Facts About R. Gregory Christie
Winner of the 2026 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for The Library in the Woods
Caldecott Honor winner
NAACP Image Award winner
Six-time Coretta Scott King Honor recipient
Boston Globe-Horn Book Award (2012) for No Crystal Stair, and the Museum of Tolerance’s Once Upon a World Children’s Book Award (2010) for Bad News for Outlaws
Nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2023, 2024 and 2025
Designed the 2013 Kwanzaa stamp for the U.S. Postal Service
Created a New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival poster
Album art for John Coltrane, Joe Sample, Kenny Barron and Jonas Kullhammar
Began his career live painting in nightclubs for Giant Step Records
Editorial illustration for The New Yorker
His art and portrait appeared in Time Magazine
Art on New York City subway cars in 2013, seen by an estimated one billion riders
DVD cover for Regina King’s film One Night in Miami
Animated films on Netflix and HBO through Karyn Parsons’ Sweet Blackberry
Official artist for the Atlanta Mayor’s Summer Reading Club under Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (2020, 2021) and Mayor Andre Dickens (2022)
Worked at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, which opened his eyes to what fine art could be
Artist in residence at the Center for Book Arts in New York City
Has traveled widely, spending time in Sweden, Holland, Germany, Canada and Australia
Owned two GAS-ART GIFTS bookstores in the Atlanta area for six years