On Wednesday, Alison Bechdel became only the second graphic book writer to win a MacArthur “Genius” grant — worth $625,000 and a lifetime of bragging. Her graphic memoirs, Fun Home and Are You My Mother?, turned her tortured family history — she had OCD and liked girls, her mother showed little affection, her closeted father likely killed himself — into multidimensional art. Erudite and beautiful, they demonstrated just how intelligent and uncompromising comics (and coming-out memoirs) could be. We caught up with her via Skype yesterday in Italy, where she’s on a six-week artist’s residency, to talk about the big prize, her next work, and the irresistible charms of Orange Is the New Black.
How will this grant affect your life?
I have been traveling so much in recent years and I can’t really work on the road, so one of the great things about winning this is I can get more work done. I tend to get paid more to go out and talk about my work than I get paid to actually do my work.
I have been traveling so much in recent years and I can’t really work on the road, so one of the great things about winning this is I can get more work done. I tend to get paid more to go out and talk about my work than I get paid to actually do my work.
You’ve turned huge swaths of your life into comics. Are you going to draw yourself winning this while staying in a 15th-century Italian castle?
I probably will, but I have to process it. I do have some anxiety as a memoirist. It kicks me out of the league of just being an everyday schlub, which is kind of my shtick. What do I do now that I’ve succeeded? In the early '80s, I started writing a comic strip about lesbians. I can’t think of a less likely career path in winning a MacArthur fellowship. Maybe being a bank robber. It was that outsiderness that drove me, and it’s a little unmooring to find myself an insider.
I probably will, but I have to process it. I do have some anxiety as a memoirist. It kicks me out of the league of just being an everyday schlub, which is kind of my shtick. What do I do now that I’ve succeeded? In the early '80s, I started writing a comic strip about lesbians. I can’t think of a less likely career path in winning a MacArthur fellowship. Maybe being a bank robber. It was that outsiderness that drove me, and it’s a little unmooring to find myself an insider.
You’re working on something slightly less personal now — a memoir about your relationship to exercise.
The Secret to Superhuman Strength. In some ways, it feels like a pretty straightforward book about physical fitness trends — almost a cultural history of different fads, and why at different times they’ve captured the popular imagination. But also I’m interested just in the body. I’ve done a lot of internal writing and exploring about the psyche and my family’s deep, dark secrets. So I’m looking forward to doing something lighter, more physical.
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The Secret to Superhuman Strength. In some ways, it feels like a pretty straightforward book about physical fitness trends — almost a cultural history of different fads, and why at different times they’ve captured the popular imagination. But also I’m interested just in the body. I’ve done a lot of internal writing and exploring about the psyche and my family’s deep, dark secrets. So I’m looking forward to doing something lighter, more physical.
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