Alison Bechdel, Creator of ‘Enjoyable Residence’, Wins College of Washington Prize | Books

The Humanities Prize, awarded biennially by the college’s Middle for the Humanities of Arts and Sciences, honors “the lifetime work of an acclaimed scholar, author or artist who has made a major and sustained contribution to the world of arts and letters”. relying on the college. Bechdel will obtain the award at a public ceremony on November 9.

“Alison Bechdel is among the preeminent feminine cartoonists of the twenty first century,” mentioned Rebecca Wanzo, professor and chair of girls’s, gender and sexuality research at Arts and Sciences. “Her work invitations conversations about sexuality, trauma, medium and gender, girls in academy, place and childhood.”

Bechdel’s “Enjoyable Residence,” referred to as a “household tragi-comedy,” particulars in phrases and comics his coming of age within the household’s funeral house. As a younger grownup, she comes out as a lesbian to her mother and father, and later her homosexual, closeted father apparently dedicated suicide whereas strolling in entrance of a truck. (Express dialogue of sexuality led to a number of e-book challenges, together with removing from Wentzville highschool cabinets.) The e-book was changed into a musical – with St. Louis-based Fox Theatricals amongst its primary producers – which gained 5 Tony Awards. , together with Finest Musical, in 2015.

Bechdel’s second memoir is titled “Are You My Mom?” and final 12 months she printed a e-book about train referred to as “The Secret to Superhuman Power.”

Bechdel’s comedian “Dykes to Watch Out For” established the well-known “Bechdel-Wallace take a look at”, which depicts a girl saying she gained’t see a film except there are not less than two characters girls speaking about one thing apart from males.

Previous winners are Sir David Adjaye (2018), Invoice T. Jones (2016), Marjorie Perloff (2014), Ken Burns (2012), Francine Prose (2010), Michael Pollan (2008) and Orhan Pamuk (2006).