Important info for you to know: You can become a fan of my page on Facebook! My graphic memoir, Tangles, is coming to a bookstore near you in fall 2010! All art on this website by Sarah Leavitt is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
My comics workshop for youth at Youthwrites
It was so great to be asked by the Vancouver International Writers Festival to lead their Youthwrites workshop this year. Each year, the VIWF runs a contest for all high school students in the Lower Mainland and then holds a workshop for the winners. These are the rules I made up for this year:
Submit a short story about a) a piece of clothing that was very important to you when you were a little kid, b) an unusual pet that belonged to you or someone you knew, or c) an important lesson you learned outside of school. The winners will transform their written pieces into one-page comics in a three-hour workshop with Sarah Leavitt, author and illustrator of Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me.
I had a great time with the winners. We talked about what comics are and how they work, and then they just got right into working on their stories — they got into that space where they’re writing and drawing with such concentration that it’s dead quiet and you can feel the energy coming off the pens and pencils. They all finished their stories in only four hours. Wow. I’m kind of jealous.
Download the PDF of the booklet the youth made, Hamsters in Bathrooms
Reading and chatting with the Amazing! Lynda! Barry! Can you dig it?
The night before I was scheduled to read with Lynda Barry, I felt like my head would explode. I realized that I was going to meet someone in person who I had admired for many years, probably 20 at least. I had no idea what it would be like. The next morning I walked into the hospitality suite for the Vancouver International Writers Festival, and there she was, sitting at a table, with a red bandanna in her hair, looking just like she does in her drawings. She looked up and saw me, jumped out of her chair and came towards me with her arms outstretched, telling me how much she loved Tangles and how wonderful it was to meet me in three dimensions. It had never even occurred to me that she would have actually read my book. I had to sit down because I was shaking and laughing and crying. We just sat and looked at each other and sniffed. And then we just had the most wonderful morning of my entire life, talking and talking and laughing so hard. Nancy Lee arrived and the three of us laughed and talked more, then we did our event — reading from our work and then talking with Nancy and then taking questions from the audience. It was an inspiring and joyful discussion about creativity, hard work, what makes a “good” drawing, the silliness of aspiring to unreachable excellence instead of just doing your own work… I am in awe of Lynda’s brain, and her ability to draw and paint these intense, moving images of teenagers and demons and monkeys and chickens and magical monsters, and the way she fills up the stage with her tiny little self, and projects this love and acceptance, even as she talks about the overlooked power of hate, and how she likes to ask her students how they would kill someone, what method they would use.
Here are some photos from this Magical! Lynda! Barry! Day!
I think that was the best day of my life. Lynda’s so smart and funny and generous and just emanates love and passion but not in a syrupy way at all, in a kick-ass, hilarious, edgy, challenging way. Wow. I feel so incredibly blessed.
All Tangles, all the time
No new posts on this page of my website lately. Check out the Tangles page, and the links to News and Reviews and Readings and Festivals, to see what’s keeping me busy this fall… At some point I will get back to posting my random drawing and writing, like the series I am working on right now of spam subject lines made into art. And they say artists don’t contribute anything constructive to society!
Reminder: Tangles Book Launch September 21
7 PM at Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver
Live music! Silent auction! Reading! Wine! Cheese! Cookies! Sparkly people! The book is about a lot of sad things, but this is a celebration. Please join us. More info on the Facebook event page.
Ellen Forney on comics, writing and teaching: recommended listening
I don’t usually post this kind of bloggish, in-the-moment thing, but I’m listening to a great podcast on Inkstuds — an interview with the fabulous Ellen Forney. I’ve loved her comics for a long time, and now I am listening to her talk about the importance of good writing in comics, the joy of teaching and more. I love her even more now.
