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Maia Kobabe

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Maia Kobabe
Kobabe at Small Press Expo 2023
Born1989 (age 34–35)
NationalityAmerican
Area(s)Cartoonist, Writer
Notable works
Gender Queer
Awards
redgoldsparkspress.com

Maia Kobabe (/ˈmaɪə koʊˌbeɪb/, born 1989[1])[2][3] is an American cartoonist and author who wrote the memoir Gender Queer.

Life and career

Kobabe graduated with an MFA in Comics from California College of the Arts.[4] Kobabe's work features themes of "identity, sexuality, anti-fascism, fairy tales and homesickness."[5]

Kobabe's graphic nonfiction work has been featured in The Nib, The Press Democrat, and SF Weekly, among other publications.[6]

Kobabe's first full-length book Gender Queer: A Memoir was published by Lion Forge Comics in 2019.[7] When asked in a Time magazine interview why Kobabe wrote the book, Kobabe said:[8]

I wrote this book in huge part because I was struggling to come out, and I was asking myself all these questions and I was having these somewhat challenging conversations. And it often seems like I was never able to fully get my point across. And I got to the point where I thought, 'I have to sit down and write about this because I don’t feel like I am getting across verbally what I’m really trying to say.'

Gender Queer was made available in some school libraries but was subsequently banned by a school district in Alaska, due to its sexually explicit content. Kobabe responded to the controversy with an opinion piece in The Washington Post, suggesting that accusers were upset less by the sexually explicit images and language than by the LGBTQ themes of the book.[9][10] Gender Queer was listed as one of the most banned or challenged books in September 2021 by The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF).[11][12] According to a report (September 2022) from PEN America,[13][14] Kobabe was the second most banned author in US school districts during the 2021–22 school year, with Gender Queer the most frequently challenged book, banned in 41 school districts.[15] Discussing a wave of book censorship in early 2022 within the United States in a Slate interview, Kobabe said:[16]

What I'm learning is that a book challenge is like a community attacking itself. The people who are hurt in a challenge are the marginalized readers in the community where the challenge takes place. That is readers who are younger, readers who do not have the financial means to buy books if they're not available for free in the library. That is queer teens who might not feel comfortable bringing a book with such an obvious title into their home, if they have more conservative parents who would only feel safe reading the book secretly in the library without even checking it out. So yes, it upsets me because what I'm seeing is resources being taken away from queer marginalized youth, which does hurt. That does hurt me.

In January 2023, Scholastic acquired Saachi's Stories by Kobabe and Lucky Srikumar[17] "in a six-figure auction".[18] The middle-grade graphic novel is scheduled for publication by Scholastic's imprint Graphix in 2025.[17][18]

Personal life

Kobabe uses Spivak pronouns (e/em/eir)[19][20][21] and identifies as non-binary and asexual.[8][22] Kobabe is dyslexic and did not learn to read until age 11.[23]

Anthologies

Kobabe has published short comics in the following anthologies:

  • Alphabet (Stacked Deck Press, 2016)[24]
  • Tabula Idem: A Queer Tarot Comic Anthology (Fortuna Media, 2017)[25]
  • The Secret Loves of Geeks (Dark Horse Comics, 2018)[26]
  • Gothic Tales of Haunted Love (Bedside Press, 2018)[27]
  • Mine!: A Celebration of Liberty And Freedom For All Benefiting Planned Parenthood (ComicMix, 2018)[28]
  • Faster Than Light, Y’all (Iron Circus Comics, 2018)
  • Advanced Death Saves (Lost His Keys Man Comics, 2019)
  • How to Wait: An Anthology of Transition (edited by Sage Persing, 2019)
  • Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers (Northwest Press, 2019)[29]
  • Rolled and Told Vol. 2 (Oni Press, 2020)[30]
  • Be Gay, Do Comics (IDW Publishing, 2020)[31]

Awards

References

  1. ^ Kobabe, Maia (2020). Gender Queer. Portland, OR: Oni Press. p. 187. ISBN 9781549304002.
  2. ^ Kobabe, Maia. "Audio Name Pronunciation". TeachingBooks. Retrieved April 12, 2021.
  3. ^ Watts, Katie (January 6, 2015). "Petaluma comic artist draws on passion". Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Retrieved May 10, 2020.
  4. ^ "About - Maia Kobabe". redgoldsparkspress.com. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  5. ^ "Maia Kobabe: Gender Queer". Cartoon Art Museum. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  6. ^ "Maia Kobabe – Wernick & Pratt Agency". wernickpratt.com. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  7. ^ Kobabe, Maia (May 28, 2019). Gender Queer: A Memoir. Oni Press. ISBN 978-1549304002.
  8. ^ a b "'Gender Queer' Author 'Relieved' After Court Rules Book's Sale Can't Be Restricted in Virginia". Time. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  9. ^ "Opinion | Maia Kobabe: Schools are banning my book 'Gender Queer.' But queer kids need queer stories". The Washington Post. October 29, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2021.
  10. ^ Goodykoontz, Emily (November 18, 2021). "Anchorage School District bans 'Gender Queer' book from its libraries". Anchorage Daily News. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  11. ^ ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom Staff (October 13, 2021). "Lawn Boy and Gender Queer: The Trend Toward Book Challenges". Intellectual Freedom Blog, The Office for Intellectual Freedom of the American Library Association. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  12. ^ Mazariegos, Miranda; Sullivan, Meghan Collins (April 4, 2022). "Efforts to ban books jumped an 'unprecedented' four-fold in 2021, ALA report says". NPR. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  13. ^ Albanese, Andrew (September 19, 2022). "PEN America Report Shows 'Rapid Acceleration' of Book Bans in Schools". Publishers Weekly. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  14. ^ Pineda, Dorany (September 19, 2022). "School book bans have seen an unprecedented surge this year, a new report says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  15. ^ "Banned in the USA: The Growing Movement to Censor Books in Schools". PEN America. September 19, 2022. Retrieved September 19, 2022.
  16. ^ Kois, Dan (March 22, 2022). "What to Do When Your Kid Is Reading a Book That Makes You Uncomfortable". Slate Magazine. Retrieved April 28, 2022.
  17. ^ a b "'Gender Queer' Creator Moves from Oni to Graphix". ICv2. January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  18. ^ a b "Rights Report: Week of January 2, 2023". Publishers Weekly. January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
  19. ^ a trans podcast [@gendereveal] (January 28, 2020). "While I'm threading, I'll add that this person emailed me to tell me about e/em pronouns as if he invented them. He didn't; those are Spivak pronouns. So I directed him to our interview with Maia Kobabe, a Spivak-using author and perfect human: https://t.co/6ouk4mOL94" (Tweet). Archived from the original on February 2, 2020. Retrieved October 5, 2021 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ O'Neil, Tegan (May 23, 2019). "Gender Queer". The Comics Journal. Retrieved July 15, 2022. More than simply a memoir, the book is designed to explain the very concept of being non-binary, beginning with the author's first memories of gender and ending with the discovery of Spivak pronouns (e, em, eir) and eir first steps towards getting the people around em to accept and understand said pronouns.
  21. ^ Schemmel, Alec (September 1, 2022). "TIME uses 'e/em/eir' pronouns in article, stirring strong social media response". WKRC-TV. Retrieved September 2, 2022.
  22. ^ Abcarian, Robin (September 28, 2022). "Commentary: I read 'Gender Queer,' the most banned book in America. And so should you". Union-Bulletin.com. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
  23. ^ "How 'Gender Queer: A Memoir' became America's most banned book". Los Angeles Times. December 21, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022.
  24. ^ "ALPHABET | Prism Comics". Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  25. ^ "The Contributors". Tumblr. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  26. ^ Atwood, Margaret (2018). The Secret Loves of Geeks. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1506704739.
  27. ^ Various; Beiko, Samantha (February 22, 2018). Gothic Tales of Haunted Love. Bedside Press. ISBN 978-1988715070.
  28. ^ Gaiman, Neil; Rivera, Gabby; Castellucci, Cecil (January 16, 2018). Mine!: A Celebration of Liberty and Freedom for All Benefiting Planned Parenthood. ComicMix. ISBN 978-1939888662.
  29. ^ Hall, Justin; Tyler, William O. (2019). Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers!. Seattle: Northwest Press. ISBN 9781943890477. OCLC 1135459868.
  30. ^ Reed, M. K. (July 14, 2020). Rolled and Told Vol. 2. Oni Press. ISBN 978-1-62010-745-4.
  31. ^ The Nib; Bors, Matt; Lubchansky, Matt; Harris, Eleri; Mirk, Sarah (September 2020). Be Gay, do Comics. National Geographic Books. ISBN 978-1684057771.
  32. ^ "SPX 2016 Ignatz Awards Nominees | SPX: The Small Press Expo". August 18, 2016. Archived from the original on January 21, 2022. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  33. ^ "SPX 2019 Ignatz Nominees | SPX: The Small Press Expo". August 22, 2019. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  34. ^ "YALSA". www.facebook.com. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  35. ^ "Gender Queer: A Memoir | Awards & Grants". www.ala.org. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  36. ^ admin (September 9, 2009). "Stonewall Book Awards List". Round Tables. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
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