Kadir Nelson

Kadir Nelson is a Los Angeles-based painter, illustrator and author whose work centers on African-American culture and history. He is best known for paintings that have often appeared on covers of The New Yorker and for album covers for Michael Jackson and Drake. He illustrated The Undefeated, which won the 2020 Caldecott Medal, and he has twice been a Caldecott honor recipient. Among his own books are Nelson Mandela, a biography, and If You Plant a Seed, a story about small kindnesses growing into something larger.