Lit 50 2023: Comics & Kids Books

For this year’s list, we organize everything by category.

Lit 50 2023: Who Really Books In Chicago introduction
Lit 50 2023: Nonfiction
Lit 50 2023: Translation
Lit 50 2023: Poetry
Lit 50 2023: Fiction

Samira Ahmed
Revolutionary girls “struggling to find their place, their voice” represent the through line in all Samira Ahmed’s books. “They’re revolutionary,” she says, “because they’re so aware of the world they’re in.” These Indian American Muslim protagonists often struggle with adult-created situations. “I’m a believer that our shelves should reflect our world,” Ahmed says. “Every child deserves to see themselves as a hero on the page.” Since 2018, Ahmed has published six novels, with two more under contract, plus a Marvel comic series. Her middle school and young adult novels routinely appear on bestseller lists. Born in Bombay, Ahmed moved to Batavia when she was a baby. She received degrees from the University of Chicago before teaching high school English in the Chicago suburbs, as well as New York City Public Schools. She later worked in education nonprofits. “It’s an incredible privilege and honor to write for young people,” Ahmed says. (Donald G. Evans)

Nick Drnaso
When Nick Drnaso searches for drawing subjects, he often settles on “a drab garage or storefront, rather than something more fantastical. Same with story matter.” The Palos Hills native’s string of three lauded graphic novels, “Beverly” (2016), “Sabrina” (2018), and “Acting Class” (2022), use those mundane realities to tell powerful stories. Drnaso now works full-time on his craft, including a new book he’s working on. As the first graphic novelist to be longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and with many other awards to his credit, Drnaso’s affinity for the everyday clearly has found its audience. Drnaso’s education in Palos Hills and then Columbia College has kept him close to home. He now lives in Old Irving Park, and uses the city as his inspiration. “I owe a huge debt to the cartoonists who came before me, and what was established in Chicago, maybe accidentally, that made this a hub,” Drnaso says. (Donald G. Evans)

Sophie Lucido Johnson/Photo: Sandy Morris | Sally Blood Photo

FEATURED COMICS & KIDS BOOKS

Sophie Lucido Johnson
Sophie Lucido Johnson has a varied writer’s life—she teaches, writes nonfiction and collaborates on cartoons for The New Yorker. Every Saturday, she meets with her friend Sammi Skolmoski and they write five jokes each, and then Johnson draws them. The magazine usually buys one out of a batch of ten—a favorite is one where a woman tells her friends, “I honestly want him to be happy—just not in a way that I’ll ever have to find out about.” Johnson is the author of the memoir “Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s),” the audiobook “Love Without Sex,” and the graphic memoir “Dear Sophie, Love Sophie: A Graphic Memoir in Diaries, Letters, and Lists.” She writes a Substack newsletter called “You Are Doing a Good Enough Job,” and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as the Chicago High School for the Arts. A book on kinship is coming up—“it’s simmering,” Johnson says. (Mary Wisniewski)

Lucy Knisley
Lucy Knisley loved to draw and write stories, but didn’t do well in traditional educational settings. She was told, “You are a mess: you should be an artist.” With nine major publications, starting with “French Milk” in 2008, Knisley seems to have heeded the advice. Knisley’s illustrated memoirs, and more recently her children’s fiction, explore her life and interests. Her autobiographical accounts of travel, cooking, relationships, and parenting teem with humor, vulnerability and joy. “Comics really lend themselves to first-person narration,” Knisley says. “Something always interests me.” The child of divorced New York parents, Knisley experienced big city and rural life growing up. She came to Chicago to attend the Art Institute of Chicago, and has mostly stayed in the city these past two decades. She now lives in Evanston. “Chicago is a much more freeing and financially sustaining place to be a creative person,” Knisley says. (Donald G. Evans)

Celia C. Pérez
Celia C. Pérez’s three middle-school books explore, through young Latina characters, her eclectic interests, including punk music and wrestling. Pérez, the daughter of a Cuban father and Mexican mother, was raised in Miami. Her heritage “is a big part of who I am, how I exist in this world.” Pérez observed a literary landscape in which non-white characters suffered through oppressive situations. With her own novel, “The First Rule of Punk” (2017), Pérez wanted to showcase “Latina children that are having experiences all kids have, but who just happen to be Latina kids.” The enthusiastic reception to that first novel, including the ALA’s Pura Belpré Award, continued with Pérez’s publication of “Strange Birds: A Field Guide to Ruffling Feathers” (2019) and “Tumble” (2022). She juggles writing with her librarian career of two decades at Harold Washington College. Pérez set her first and forthcoming novels partially in the city. (Donald G. Evans)