CCA ALUM STANDS FIRM AMID EFFORTS TO BAN GRAPHIC NOVEL

Illustrator Maia Kobabe (MFA Comics 2016), who uses e/em/eir pronouns, recently found emself at the center of the nationwide controversy over which books belong on school library shelves. The CCA alum’s 2019 graphic memoir Gender Queer movingly charts eir personal story of coming out as nonbinary. Kobabe had set out to write the book as a way to communicate that experience to friends and family, and also hoped it would reach other young people who were struggling with gender nonconformity. Gender Queer earned a passionate following, good reviews, and multiple awards.

Then, in 2021, amid ramped-up efforts by certain school boards to ban books they claim are inappropriate for children or teens, Gender Queer became the most challenged book in the United States for its honest depiction of sexuality and gender fluidity. Ironically, the controversy surrounding Gender Queer has raised the book’s profile and increased its sales. And Kobabe has given interviews in the New York Times, NBC News, the Texas Tribune, and others affirming the importance of coming-of-age works such as Gender Queer that speak to youth honestly and openly.