Kathi Burke

Kathi Burke, better known by her penname Fatti Burke, is an Irish Waterford-based non-fiction artist, illustrator and author. She is best known for Irelandopedia, Historopedia and Foclóiropedia; a trilogy of mini-encyclopedias she created with her father John Burke and the Little Library series of books.

Biography

Burke was born in Dunmore East, County Waterford and studied visual communications at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Dublin for 4 years from 2008–2012. After finishing NCAD, she worked in graphic design for a year before she focused on Illustrating. In 2014, she began volunteering for a confidential domestic abuse helpline once a week. She received a master's degree in Children's Literature at Trinity College Dublin in 2023.

In 2015, Burke was included on the Irish Independent's "Rising Female Stars of 2015" list, where she said that "International Women's Day was a reminder that there is still so much for women to work towards in terms of the roles we demand in society." Later that year, she released her first and most popular book; the Irelandopedia, a mini-encyclopedia with a page for every Irish County and some additional pages for general Irish culture. The Irelandopedia won the RTÉ Audience Choice Award at the Irish Book Awards in 2015 and the Merit Award at the KPMG Children's Books Ireland Awards in 2016.

On 17 May 2024, during the build up to the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, she held a webinar with the Holy Cross Mercy School in Killarney, County Kerry where she taught the children how to draw atheletes that were competing in the Summer Olympics. It was held as part of the PTSB Dare to Believe Olympic Schools Programme. In June and August 2024, she exhibited Lotus Hall, a tapestry depicting the view from the window in her childhood home in Dunmore East, at the Garter Lane Arts Centre in Waterford.

Works illustrated

Awards

Notes

References

External links

• Official website