European Literature Night 2014: The Graphic Novelists
(See 2 previous Blog Posts on ELN; with thanks to the ELN team for compiling this list)
On May 14th 2014 for the first time the British Library in London is holding 2 parallel ‘European Literature Nights’: one with 6 writers of fiction hosted by Rosie Goldsmith and the second, hosted by the UK’s most celebrated writer on graphic novels, Paul Gravett. Paul will explore the diversity and innovation evolving within the graphic novel genre across Europe with the following authors:
- Line Hoven is an illustrator and comic artist who studied under German comics greats Anke Feuchtenberger and ATAK at HAW Hamburg. She uses a highly meticulous scratchboard method – using black card and scratching out contrasting white lines, surface areas and filigree textures. Love Looks Away was her first full length graphic novel and was published in English by Blank Slate Books in 2012. Line is married to the cartoonist Arne Bellstorf and lives and works in Hamburg.
- Lucie Lomova is a writer, artist, illustrator and teacher, studied dramaturgy at the Theatre faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and worked briefly as a journalist before devoting herself fully to drawing and writing. Her best known work is a three volume children‘s graphic novel series about the two small mice Anca and Pepik. She has also published famous Czech fairytales in the comic format while her graphic novels The Savages created a stir in France in 2011. Her brand new detective graphic novel will be published in March 2014 in both the Czech Republic and France.
- Max Bardin has been writing and drawing comics since the early 80’s. His book Bardin the Superrealist won him the Spanish National Comic Award in 2007. His latest books are Vapor, Paseo astral and Conversación de sombras. He is well known for his graphic work as an illustrator, producing posters, record covers and illustrations for books and press. He’s currently publishing a comic series on fiction in El País Semanal and illustrations on the literary world in Babelia. Oh panoptic fiction! a retrospective exhibition of his work, has recently been on show in Barcelona, having travelled to Valencia, Madrid, Mexico and Brazil.
Judith Vanistendael creates comics that are about “life as it really is”. Born in Brussels, she studied at the Hochschule der Kunste in Berlin, earned an academic degree in art sciences from the Univeristy of Ghent, and took a course on comic strip creation at the Sint Lukas art school in Brussels. Her first graphic novel, the semi-autobiographical Dance by the Light of the Moon, was made in response to her father, journalist Geert van Istendael, publishing her story without her permission. It was nominated twice for the prestigious Angouleme Grand Prize. Her most recent work is When David Lost His Voice. Both are published in English by SelfMadeHero.
