Best Graphic Memoirs
Title↕ | Author↕ | Year↕ | Subject↕ | Notable Awards↕ | Known For↕ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maus | Art Spiegelman | 1986 | Author's father surviving the Holocaust as a Polish Jew | Pulitzer Prize 1992 (Special Award) | Jews as mice, Nazis as cats, first graphic novel to win Pulitzer |
Persepolis | Marjane Satrapi | 2000 | Growing up in Iran during the Islamic Revolution | Angouleme Prize, Harvey Award | Stark black-and-white style, Oscar-nominated animated film |
Fun Home | Alison Bechdel | 2006 | Bechdel's closeted gay father and her own coming out | Eisner Award, Lambda Literary Award | Tony-winning musical adaptation, literary references on every page |
Hyperbole and a Half | Allie Brosh | 2013 | Author's childhood, dogs, and crippling depression | Goodreads Choice Award | Crude-style drawings belying emotional depth, viral blog origin |
Blankets | Craig Thompson | 2003 | Evangelical childhood and first love in rural Wisconsin | Harvey, Eisner, Ignatz Awards | 592 pages, one of the first 'graphic novels' to get mainstream literary reviews |
Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant? | Roz Chast | 2014 | Caring for aging parents through their final years | National Book Critics Circle Award | New Yorker cartoonist's painfully funny caregiving memoir |
Stitches | David Small | 2009 | Childhood cancer, lost voice, and a silent dysfunctional family | National Book Award finalist | Eerie watercolor wash, child's-eye horror of 1950s medicine |
Epileptic | David B. | 1996 | Growing up with a brother suffering severe epilepsy | Ignatz, Eisner Awards | Dense ink-black surreal imagery, French BD masterpiece |
The Best We Could Do | Thi Bui | 2017 | Vietnamese refugee family and their escape to America | American Book Award 2018 | Watercolor illustrations, intergenerational trauma |
March: Book One | John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell | 2013 | Rep. John Lewis's life in the civil rights movement | Coretta Scott King, Eisner Awards | Congressman's life story, Book Three won the National Book Award |
Are You My Mother? | Alison Bechdel | 2012 | Bechdel's fraught relationship with her mother, therapy, Virginia Woolf | Judy Grahn Award finalist | Psychoanalytic follow-up to Fun Home |
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters | Emil Ferris | 2017 | Girl obsessed with monsters investigates a neighbor's murder in 1960s Chicago | Eisner, Ignatz, Harvey Awards sweep | Drawn in ballpoint pen on notebook paper, debut at age 55 |
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen | Lucy Knisley | 2013 | Growing up with a chef mother, food as family language | Harvey Award nomination | Illustrated recipes, sweet confectionary style |
Displacement | Lucy Knisley | 2015 | Cruise caring for elderly grandparents | ALA Alex Award nominee | Tender tragicomic caregiving memoir at sea |
Good Talk | Mira Jacob | 2019 | Conversations with her biracial son about race in Trump-era America | National Book Critics Circle finalist | Photo-collage style, conversations with a curious six-year-old |
Spinning | Tillie Walden | 2017 | Teen years in competitive figure skating and coming out | Eisner Award 2018 | Youngest Eisner winner at age 21, icy purple palette |
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