Madelaine Rosca, a 26-year-old former librarian from Tasmania and creator of Seven Seas' Hollow Fields manga, was one of four winners of Japan's first ever International Manga Award.  A total of 146 works were submitted for the contest, which Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso called 'the Nobel Prize of Manga' (see 'Japan Launches International Manga Award').

Ms. Rosca was the only westerner among the four announced winners.  Forty-three-year-old Hong Kong artist Lee Chi Ching was the grand prize winner.  The three runners up include Ms. Rosca, the Hong Kong artist Kai and Malaysian artist Benny Wong Thong Hou.   All four winners were flown to Japan for the award ceremony and given a 10-day tour of the country.

Hollow Fields is a three-volume all-ages series about a young girl who finds herself enrolled in a school for mad scientists, Miss Weaver's Academy for the Scientifically Gifted and Ethically Unfettered. The first volume of the Hollow Fields series will be in stores later this month -- and it will also be available this fall through Scholastic Book Fairs, which should gain it considerable exposure.