Synopsis
I’m drawn to nonfiction because it allows usto write about anything, including poetry and fiction. The only limitation is that ourwords must be true. Which is what makes this fieldso interesting: what’s ‘true’? We’ll debatethisquestionforever.
Biography
In my twenties I wrote, designed, and published The Imp, a ’zine about underground comic books, or graphic novels, as they’re now called. Each issue was a novella-length essay about one subject: Dan Clowes, Chris Ware, Jack Chick, and Mexican historietas. These led to my first official book, Chris Ware, followed by Vessels, a memoir of fatherhood. Now I’m writing a book-length essay about Chicago. Along the way I’ve received fellowships from the Howard Foundation at Brown University, the National Endowment for the Arts, and others.
Work with Students
I’ve advised every kind of BA and MA project: one about growing up on an Indian reservation, another about drag queens. Having brain cancer. A mom who’s homeless; another who’s a senator. Profiles, essays, reporting. Art criticism. A murder investigation. Anything goes, in any format.
Select Publications
Books:
- Vessels. New York: WW Norton, 2016.Chris Ware. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004.
Personal Essays:
- “Willa Raeburn.” newyorker.com (July 10, 2006).
- “Vessels.” The New Yorker (May 1, 2006): 48-53.
Art Criticism:
- “The Smartest Cartoonist on Earth.” In Chris Ware: Conversations, edited by Jean Braithwaite, 79-81.
- Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 2017.
- “¡Historietas Perversas! Mexico’s Perverse ‘Little Histories.’” Tin House 29 (2006): 97-110.
- “Two Centuries of Underground Comics.” In Strips, Toons, and Bluesies: Essays in Comics and Culture, edited by D.B. Dowd and Todd Hignite, 34-44. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2006.
- “The Fallen World of Daniel Clowes.” In An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories, edited by Ivan Brunetti, 397. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.
- “The Brand Called Shmoo.” In Boob Jubilee: The Cultural Politics of the New Economy, edited by Thomas Frank, 200-211. New York: WW Norton, 2003.
