Whenever I have a signing or go to a comic show, I’m reminded by the faces and kindness of readers who I meet, that my work is reaching out past my own bubble and touching other people. It’s easy to become used to the vacuum that’s created when you’re working on your own. You can forget, day-to-day, that your work is read and seen by people. LK: I think this is an ongoing experience. OR: When was your moment when you felt you had made it as an author? I have readers tell me “This must be so weird, that I know about your cat!” But all my comics are filtered and edited and shared with purpose– I love that you know about my cat! Let’s talk about my cat! I’m very touched and honored when people remember things about me that they’ve read in my work. So it was always pretty automatic, for me to write about my life and share it in this way.

Just a bunch of kids on Livejournal, drawing pictures and complaining about school. The Internet seemed so much cozier, then. LK: I came of age in the time when every teenager had their own blog. How does it feel to write so honestly and openly about your life? OR:Your work fits beautifully into this nouveau genre of graphic memoir. Humor and pathos and metaphor can be so well conveyed in the graphic narrative, and I love that I’m able to dance the line between the two.

LK: The interplay between the visuals and the text are really important to how I tell stories– there is so much there that would be missing without one or the other. OR: What do you feel the graphic novel genre allows you to do that traditional novel-writing would not? At first, it was just “can I ever be nearly as good as my heroes?” And now it’s more “What can I make that will inspire people?” With every book I draw and write, I get more confident in my abilities– that I’m able to do more and interesting things with my work– things people haven’t seen before. I didn’t know if I would ever have the stamina or patience to draw a whole book. But I know that self-doubt was a major motivator when I first started out. Lucy Knisley (LK): I certainly have honed my methods and techniques a lot more than they were ten years ago! I think that’s a constant process. How do you think your concept of art and story-telling have changed in that time? Recently, Knisley spoke with Oyez Review about her experience as a writer all over the world.Īlicia Drier, Oyez Review (OR): It’s been almost 10 years since your first graphic novel was published. From French Milk to Relish to her latest novel Something New, Knisley has made a career out of turning her life of travel, eating, and coming of age stories into art on the page.

Lucy Knisley, an authority on all things food and graphic literature, would be the first to tell you that.

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