The Texas Book Festival (TBF) has named El Paso-based Zeke Peña as its 2024 Festival poster artist. Each year TBF chooses an artist with Texas ties to create a design that reflects themes of imagination, creativity, community, and artistic expression.
Zeke Peña
Mr. Peña is a Xicano author and illustrator whose work addresses issues related to identity, politics, ecology, and social justice. He earned an Art History degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 2005. Mr. Peña’s work is held in collections across the U.S., including the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.; the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, Illinois; and The Billy Ireland Cartoon Museum in Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Peña has received awards for his illustrations in My Papi Has a Motorcycle (Quintero / Kokila, 2019) and Photographic: The Life of Graciela Iturbide (Quintero /Getty Publications, 2017). Recently he illustrated the New York Times bestselling book Miles Morales Suspended: A Spider-Man Novel, authored by Jason Reynolds and published by Atheneum.
In a press release, Mr. Peña spoke about the poster design. He stated, “I recently became a father so this image has a lot to do with how we hand down stories from one generation to the next. The concept for this image is centered around the history of the places that we come from.”
Marianne DeLeón, TBF’s CEO, commented, “Zeke Peña’s art serves as a vibrant testament to TBF’s unwavering dedication to Texas artists, illustrators, writers, and ultimately Texas’s wonderful diversity. Zeke is our first poster artist from El Paso, and his piece, custom made for the 2024 Festival, showcases TBF’s commitment to the rich cultural tapestry of our state. With the launch of Reading Rock Stars in El Paso in 2023, our hope is to bring El Paso in closer, while celebrating authors, illustrators, and readers from across our great state.”
Merchandise featuring Mr. Peña’s design will be available for purchase at the festival in November, and online through the TBF website.
