Kent’s Corner: Illustrated Memoirs by Women

Every month, I get to share the Blurb books I’ve been reading. In case you haven’t been paying attention, we have some really, really good stuff made with us. Well, March was Women’s History Month, and it had me thinking—and reading—a lot of books by women artists. So, even though it’ll be April by the time you’re reading this, here are three books in honor Women’s History Month by women who are using words and pictures to tell their own stories

Visual Whiskey
6×9 Trade book
Made with Adobe InDesign

Visual Whiskey is a true heartbreaker—and yet it’s so freakin’ good. Carmen Leah’s autobiographical story of her relationship with an addict was originally released in one Instagram a day, as part of the #100dayproject. Creating an illustration, every day, for 100 days is feat enough; creating such a moving, bitter, and even hopeful story, in a series of single panels, is something else entirely.

Hard to Say
6×9 Trade book
Made with PDF Uploader

Like Carmen Leah, Carrie Beall is a fine artist and storyteller. Her own illustrated memoir, Hard to Say, is dedicated to her mother. It’s a deeply textural assortment of visual essays told through sketches, hand-written notes on steno pads, and photos. There’s a palpable sense of a family tragedy kept just below the surface. But it never becomes bogged down. Intertwined throughout is the hopeful naiveté of an adolescent magical thinking.

Boy Crazy
Magazine
Made with Adobe InDesign

Is it a cookbook or is it a memoir? Boy Crazy is delightfully both. Created by 20-something illustrator Hanna Carter, it’s a romp through relationships with food and boys—and boys and food. I can’t vouch for the recipes (though they look good), but the stories are touching, funny, pithy, and brutally honest as she reminisces about grammar school crushes, tinder dates, and first times.