I’ve been working on my current project, Agnes Murderess, for many years. It can be hard to stay on track over the long term, especially given everything else I have to do every day besides make art. Jessica Abel’s fantastic teaching has been a big support for me, as have my friendships. It was great to talk about all this with Jessica and my dear friend and accountability partner Susan Olding. The Crowdcast format worked really well, too — our audience of about 100 stuck with us for the whole hour +, and made some great suggestions in the chat sidebar. It’s so important to have support around you when you’re pouring yourself into a creative project.
I just posted a new comic on Medium about how to keep making comics even when it feels too hard. It includes sloth pooping habits so please check it out.
I made it for the beautiful zine by residents at the 2016 Short Run Trailer Blaze Ladies’ Comics and Books Residency!
The cover is to die for and the rest is just as good. These ladies kick ass.
My publisher sent this from Le Nouvel Observateur (L’Obs) — I guess it’s more of a mention than a review, but extremely nice and exciting for me! According to Wikipedia, it’s the “most prominent French general information magazine in terms of audience and circulation.”
On adore le témoignage de Sarah Leavitt (…), ce journal magistral intègre au passage l’histoire des liens familiaux, ceux auxquelq on ne pense pas toujours.
Just in case anyone still comes here ever, I thought I’d say, Hey, I’m still around but spending as much time as possible working on my next book. (Sometimes I post on Facebook or Twitter.)
In early April I was one of the featured writers at the University of North Dakota Writers Festival — the 45th year and one of the only free writers festivals left. Got to meet the fabulous Robert Pinsky and spend time with some of the most engaged and engaging writers festival participants I’ve ever met. Videos from the conference have just been posted.
Tangles continues to get reviews in Germany, where it was published last spring, and I will soon have details to share about the upcoming French publication.
Oh, here is a Japanese translation of two pages of Tangles done by a local Japanese community association, Tonari Gumi:
I have a comic all about menstruation in this book: MESS: The Hospital Anthology, and some more illustrations and comics in forthcoming publications.
Meanwhile I’m getting ready to teach two classes in the UBC Creative Writing Department in 2014/15.
I hope this is less like a boring holiday letter, and more like an inoffensive update. 😉
If you are patient, you might see a new book from me within three years.
In 2011 I made a zine called From Diary to Graphic Narrative, which is about just that. I’ve just posted the pages on Tumblr: diarytonarrative.tumblr.com
Really looking forward to this exhibit of autobiographical cartoonists. The curators chose some of the original pages from Tangles as well as earlier sketches for the pages. The show opens October 9 and the big reception and talk is on the 20. I hope to see you there!
So much fun! The nice people at CBC’s Canada Writes asked me to create a comic for their latest challenge. I would draw a three-panel narrative without words, and contestants would submit a caption for each of the panels. It was a challenge for me, too: create a three-panel comic that is open enough for people to create their own story, yet with panels that are connected enough to suggest a narrative. Canada Writes will be posting an interview next week about the process of creating the three panels — it involves lots of back and forth and lots of drafts — but in the meantime, please participate in the contest. It’s open until June 7.
