Author Archive
March 16th, 2007
My flight from Miami to Philadelphia got rerouted today. To Charlotte, NC. Where I have taken up residence in a hotel. There’s apparently some sort of weather event that has shut down the entire eastern seaboard. I keep calling US Airways to rebook but I just get a busy signal, I can’t even get put on hold.
Charlotte is quite lovely, though. I guess I might as well be here as anywhere. Does it really matter as long as I have my laptop and wifi? I’m feeling very virtual.
On a strange note, as I was leaving the Charlotte airport this afternoon, Dorothy Allison was being paged over the loudspeaker.
March 15th, 2007
I just finished a two-day visit to Miami Dade College, sponsored by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts, during which I talked about Fun Home to a staggering array of classes, from Art to English to Human Growth and Development to The Graphic Novel. Plus the Gay Straight Alliance. And a stopoff at the Broward County Public Library.
The library reading last night was really interesting. It was a small crowd of mostly older gay men who are about the age my dad (the subject of my memoir Fun Home) would be. I’ve been getting kind of burnt out reading from my book over and over to people—it’s increasingly difficult to feel connected to what I’m saying. But reading to these guys last night, it felt very immediate again. The most moving part was meeting a lesbian about my age who’d come with her gay dad.
Here I am with Leidy and Xio Fuentes at the GSA meeting. We had a rousing discussion about Harriet the Spy, among other things.
Tomorrow I fly home to VT. Here’s a movie of a big bird flying around my Miami hotel balcony this afternoon. What kind is it?
March 15th, 2007
The Marshall, Missouri Public Library Board of Trustees just voted to return both Fun Home and Craig Thompson’s graphic novel Blankets to the library’s shelves. Here’s an article about it in the Marshall Democrat-News.
March 14th, 2007
One upside of blogging is that it’s a curious kind of anchor, a way of locating myself. Since I’ve been traveling so much, I barely know where I am when I wake up. But the blog is always right here where it always is–everywhere and nowhere. Here I am right now in Miami, of all places. I’m getting ready to go to some classes at Miami Dade College today. And tonight I speak at the Broward County Library.
I only managed to get one comic strip done during my brief time at home last weekend. I guess I’ll do the next one when I get home next weekend.
March 9th, 2007
1. I didn’t win a National Book Critics Circle Award last night. Daniel Mendesohn won in the autobiography category for his memoir about his relatives who were killed in the Holocaust, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million. Awards are funny things. I hate getting sucked into caring about them, but it’s hard not to on some level. Still, I don’t really mind losing so much. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s true: it was a great honor just to be nominated. Any lingering disappointment was dissipated at dinner later, when I shook hands with the very august Taylor Branch, who also didn’t win. The third book in his trilogy about Martin Luther King, At Canaan’s Edge, had been nominated in the biography category. The high point of the evening for me was John Leonard’s lovely insights into the art of criticism as he accepted a lifetime achievement award. I won’t go on an on about who won what. If you care, you can look here.
2. I don’t mean to be tiresome, but speaking of awards, I just found out Fun Home has been nominated for a Lambda Book Award.
3. Here’s an interview I did with Bookslut, while I was at the Comic Con last week.
4. Here’s a picture of me at the NBCC reading on Wednesday night. Thanks to Lori McFadden of the Strand Bookstore for sending it to me. Oh, and thanks to cybercita for coming to the reading! Isn’t it cool seeing that giant drawing of my dad looming behind me?
5. I missed Town Meeting Day in Vermont because I’ve been away from home for a long time. But I just learned that nearly thirty towns passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney for misleading the country into war.
6. In the past two weeks I attended four panels at the New York Comic Con, visited Franklin and Marshall College to talk about my work, spent a week with my mom, then returned to NYC for this awards hoopla. Monday I go to Middlebury College, and Tuesday I fly to Florida for three days to do a bunch of classes and things at Miami Dade College. Somehow between this morning and Sunday night I have to drive home to VT, do my laundry, pack it up again, and, oh–produce two comic strips. I wonder how that’s going to happen.
March 6th, 2007
I’m gonna be in NYC Wednesday March 7 and Thursday March 8 because Fun Home is nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. There’s a reading of all the finalists Wednesday evening at 6pm at The New School University, Tishman Auditorium, 66 W. 12th St. There’ll be some pretty fancy people there. A real literary smorgasbord. You should come! It’s free and open to the public.
Then on Thursday the 8th, the award ceremony happens. That also appears to be free and open to the public, and also happens at 6pm at Tishman Auditorium. Though it probably won’t be as interesting as the reading.
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March 5th, 2007
Sorry I haven’t been posting. I’ve been really crazed.
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March 4th, 2007
Katie here.
Here’s a short take on one of the panels Alison participated in at NY ComicCon from blogger Ron Hogan. For the record, DTWOF does not endorse any particular blogger or received kickbacks in exchange for blogger publicity. For the purposes of this forum, it’s a piece that gives some background about conferences like NYCC while briefly addressing comics and the publishing industry as well as the potential removal of Fun Home from a Missouri library.
Folks in Florida and thereabouts will be interested to know that Alison will appear in Ft. Lauderdale on March 13th. Details on the Appearances page.
February 26th, 2007
Look. I was on a panel with Aline Crumb! That’s her on the left, and Miriam Katin on the right. Miriam wrote a memoir about escaping the Nazis during her childhood in Hungary during World War II. It’s called We Are On Our Own. I haven’t read it yet, but will do so immediately. I really liked her. Aline was talking about her new book, Need More Love, which I also must get. We were on a panel called “Mothers and Daughters,” talking about Read the rest of this entry »
February 23rd, 2007
Hey, I’m in New York. And I just met the awesome Rachel Maddow, of the eponymous Rachel Maddow Show on Air America. She interviewed me because I’m in town for the big Comic Con and it’s gonna air on her show later tonight.
Here’s a photo of me right now in the Barnes & Noble cafe where I’m posting this. The guy next to me just pointed out that this mural depicts great writers who are watching over us as we sit here slurping lattes, inspiring us to do something more productive with our time. That’s James Joyce in the middle but I’m not sure who those other people are.
