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Sarah interviewed on Book Madam

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Check out my chat with Julie Wilson of Book Madam. In their words: “Book Madam & Associates is a collective of publishing and media professionals who love bright ideas and have been known to have a few of their own. Our goal is simple: to point to smart, savvy projects and people. Also expect inspiration, critiques, news items and the odd kitten video.” They also say they’re “The Cool Hunters of Publishing.” I’m a big fan of Book Madam and I’m thrilled that they looked me up. I love the chat format for an interview too!

Live-to-Chat: Sarah Leavitt, author/illustrator of Tangles
Lynda Barry is smitten with Sarah Leavitt. So too shall you be after reading this incroyable chat with the author/illustrator of the graphic memoir Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me… More

Tangles reviewed in FFWD, Calgary

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Preserved Images: Sarah Leavitt’s first memoir tracks illness through comics
By Richard Lam

“It’s a fine line that Leavitt walks, but it pays off in how acutely observed every panel is, and how attentive she was to the sensitive and ultimately harrowing experience… Leavitt’s drawings are thin and fragile, full of shaky lines and vulnerability that capture the silent, gradual trauma of the situation.”

Read the full article here, which, by the way, includes my suggestion of “Graphic Trauma” as a label for the sub-genre of autobiographical comics that focuses on families dealing with serious illness. You read it here first.

Tangles reviewed in Montreal Gazette

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… But her drawing is actually deceptively sophisticated. What might at a glance look like whimsical doodles are in fact controlled and nuanced compositions wringing maximum emotional impact from minimal visual information. The appearance of naivete, sneakily effective at first, grows increasingly appropriate as Midge’s mind regresses into something resembling a childlike state.

I’ve shown this book to two friends, both of whom initially expressed doubts as to whether its form was appropriate to its content; both were soon won over.

The fact that Tangles was short-listed for the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize could be taken to represent a new level of mainstream acceptance for the graphic-lit medium. I’d prefer to take it as given that graphic lit has arrived and say instead that Tangles is simply a fine and touching book.

As the rate of Alzheimer’s continues to increase as the population ages, Tangles joins Jeffrey Moore’s novel The Memory Artists and Sarah Polley’s film Away from Her at the head of a list of illuminating and much-needed artistic responses.

Read the full article on the Montreal Gazette website  The link is broken to the Gazette review, but here it is on the National Post.