US: Alison Bechdel receives MacArthur ‘genius’ award
Openly-gay graphic memoirist, Alison Bechdel, was awarded the MacArthur Foundation “genius” Grant this week.
The news came to Bechdel while in Umbria, Italy on an artist’s residency.
In a tweet she said she was shocked and honored to be part of the 2014 roster of MacArthur Winners.
She wrote: “Proud and flabbergasted to be named a 2014 #MacFellow. Congrats to the full class.”
Recently, Bechdel’s third graphic memoir, The Secret to Superhuman Strength was acquired by Houghton Mifflin for a 2017 release.
In a statement regarding the acquisition of the new memoir, senior executive at Houghton Mifflin, Deanne Urmy said that Bechdel’s writing has helped to change the world.
She said: “Alison Bechdel’s sheer talent — now I guess we can say ‘genius’ — built on her once-strange pursuit of cartooning about lesbian subculture has changed the world just a little bit.”
