Contact
To contact Lucy for professional inquiries, please email her agent, Holly Bemiss, at hollyb@rabiner.net.
You can reach out to Lucy via her Patreon page.
About Lucy
Lucy Knisley is a critically acclaimed and award-winning comic creator. She lives in Evanston, IL.
She specializes in personal, confessional graphic novels and travelogues.
Her last name is confusing and has a silent K. It's pronounced kind-of like "nigh-slee.”
She was born in 1985 and grew up in New York, reading comics despite her artistic and literary parents' mild objections. To Lucy, comics have always combined these two inherited loves: the written word and the drawn image.
The artist shown here circa 1994 in stylish leaf pants, competing for couch space with some cushions.
She spent her formative years working for her mother in a catering kitchen, waiting tables and manning a booth at farmer's markets, which was the inspiration for her graphic novel, RELISH; My Life in the Kitchen.
She attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (Merit Scholar, BFA 2007), followed by The Center for Cartoon Studies (Diamond in the Rough Scholar, MFA 2009).
She also teaches and lectures on comics at conventions, after-school programs, camps and workshops, to both adults and tiny, immature adults. Below is an illustrated talk she has given on travelogues, and how she constructs her own.
She has had the pleasure of appearing and speaking as a special guest at San Diego Comic Con, Toronto Comic Arts Festival, Chicago Comics and Entertainment Expo, Renegade Crafts, Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, MoCCA Arts Fest, Small Press Expo, New York Comic Con, Webcomic Weekend, The Maine Comic Arts Festival, Raptus Fest, Stumptown Comics Fest, Brooklyn Book Fest, Miami Book Fest and more.
The artist shown here snort-laughing at her partner in front of a crowd of hundreds at San Diego Comic Con 2014, where she was a special guest. (Photo by Jamie Bressler)
Publishing History
Lucy has published more than a dozen books, with a number of fantastic publishers. These have included: Simon & Schuster, First Second Books, Fantagraphics, Chronicle, Random House Graphics, Knopf and Rocky Pond. She has also contributed to a number of collections and anthologies at various publishers, and made work for many periodicals and publications.
She specializes in graphic narratives, travelogues, stories about blended families, and rhapsodies about food. She has made comics for adult readers, middle-grade readers, and young readers, alike, and believes that comics are for everyone.
Current Projects
Lucy has two books coming out in 2024, including Ride Beside me (A picture book from Knopf) and Woe: A Housecat’s Tale of Despair (Random House Graphics). In between touring these two books across the country, she’ll be hard at work writing and drawing the third book in her Peapod Farms middle-grade graphic novel series, as well as also working on her fourth picture book for young readers.
Lucy enjoys playing with her partner and kiddo, eating yummy food, riding bikes, reading, and going to bed early. She’s a fan of tea, puzzles, cats, books, as well as tattoos, reproductive justice, and punk music.
