Stone Fruit is a graphic novel by Lee Lai, published May 11, 2021 by Fantagraphics.
In 2022, the book won the Lambda Literary Award for Graphic Novel/Comics, [1] was a Barbara Gittings Literature Award honor book, [2] and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics. [3]
Stone Fruit was generally well-received, including starred reviews from Booklist [4] and Publishers Weekly . [5]
Publishers Weekly applauded how Lai "skillfully captures the ways family dynamics and histories play out in romantic relationships, and how heavy those legacies can land," which results in "a poignant and mature rumination on how people change, and change each other, proving Lai a talent well worth watching." [5] Terry Hong, writing for Booklist, called the novel a "jaw-dropping debut" with "stunning artistry," complementing by Lai's "complex narrative skills." [4] Laura Olive Sackton, writing for the Chicago Review of Books, also applauded the novel, calling it "[a] remarkable contribution to this chorus of queer storytelling," saying the narrative is filled with "smart dialogue and character growth" and that through the illustration, Lai "literally draws transformation, and the feelings it evokes, onto the page." [6]
The Guardian 's Rachel Cooke provided a mixed review, calling Stone Fruit "[a] downbeat but moving exploration of the aftermath of a relationship." [7] Cooke noted that while the book is affective, "you finish it with no hope at all that its characters will ever be able to resolve their difficulties. There is something intensely bleak at its centre." [7]
| Year | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | American Library Association's Best Graphic Novels for Adults | Top 10 | [8] |
| National Book Foundation's "5 Under 35" Award | Honoree | [9] | |
| 2022 | Barbara Gittings Literature Award | Honor | [2] |
| Lambda Literary Award for Graphic Novel/Comics | Winner | [1] | |
| Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics | Finalist | [10] | |
| American Library Association's Over the Rainbow Book List | Top 10 | [11] | |
| Stella Prize | Shortlist | [12] |
Joe Sacco is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books Palestine (1996) and Footnotes in Gaza (2009), on Israeli–Palestinian relations; and Safe Area Goražde (2000) and The Fixer (2003) on the Bosnian War. In 2020, Sacco released Paying the Land, published by Henry Holt and Company.
Notable events of 2006 in comics.
Brought to Light - subtitled Thirty Years of Drug Smuggling, Arms Deals, and Covert Action - is an anthology of two political graphic novels, published originally by Eclipse Comics in 1988.
Pim & Francie: The Golden Bear Days is a 2009 book by cartoonist Al Columbia. Subtitled "Artifacts and Bone Fragments", it is a sketchbook-like assemblage of illustrations, paintings, sketches, and unfinished comics featuring his impish, Hansel and Gretel-like characters Pim and Francie, drawn over a period of more than ten years. According to Columbia, the book's fragmentary vignettes "were all attempts [to] make a full-fledged comic and do things right - to put out comics regularly. But it just never really happened that way for me." It was published by Fantagraphics.
Eleanor McCutcheon Davis is an American cartoonist and illustrator.
Wuvable Oaf is an indie comic book series by American artist and writer Ed Luce, under his Goteblüd Comics imprint. The central story follows the title character, Oaf Jadwiga, as he searches for love in a city that is never explicitly named, but is based on San Francisco. A number of subplots include Oaf's bizarre relationship with his cats and obsession with disco grindcore band Eja©uloid, whose lead singer Eiffel is Oaf's primary love interest. The comic also presents an extensive supporting cast of characters, many of whom have starred in their own spin-off stories and mini-comics.
Jeanne Thornton is an American writer and copublisher of Instar Books and Rocksalt Magazine. She has received the Judith A. Markowitz Award for Emerging LGBTQ Writers. Anthologies to which she has contributed to have won a Lambda Literary Award and a Barbara Gittings Literature Award. Works she has written and edited have been finalists for Lambda Literary Awards for Debut Fiction, Transgender Fiction, and Graphic Novel. Her 2021 novel Summer Fun is a one-sided epistolary novel consisting of letters from a transgender woman in New Mexico to a fictional musician based on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys; it won the 2022 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction.
Ed Luce is an American cartoonist, best known for his indie comics series Wuvable Oaf. The series focuses on Oaf Jadwiga, a bearish gay ex-wrestler looking for love. Originally funded by a grant from Prism Comics, it was self-published in five standalone chapters until being compiled in graphic novel form by Fantagraphics Books in 2015.
SJ Sindu is a genderqueer Sri Lankan American novelist and short story writer. Her first novel, Marriage of a Thousand Lies, was released by Soho Press in June 2017, won the Publishing Triangle Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction, and was named an American Library Association Stonewall Honor Book. Her second novel, Blue-Skinned Gods, was released on November 17, 2021, also by Soho Press. Her second chapbook Dominant Genes, which won the 2020 Black River Chapbook Competition, was released in February 2022 by Black Lawrence Press. Her middle-grade fantasy graphic novel, Shakti, was published in 2023 by HarperCollins. Her work has been published in Brevity, The Normal School, The Los Angeles Review of Books, apt, Vinyl Poetry, PRISM International, VIDA, Black Girl Dangerous, rkvry quarterly, and elsewhere. Sindu was a 2013 Lambda Literary Fellow, holds an MA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and a PhD in Creative Writing from Florida State University. She currently teaches Creative Writing at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Emil Ferris is an American writer, cartoonist, and designer. Ferris debuted in publishing with her 2017 graphic novel My Favorite Thing Is Monsters. The novel tells a coming-of-age story of Karen Reyes, a girl growing up in 1960s Chicago, and is written and drawn in the form of the character's notebook. The graphic novel was praised as a "masterpiece" and one of the best comics by a new author.
Marriage of a Thousand Lies is a novel by Sri Lankan-American author SJ Sindu, published by Soho Press in 2017. It tells the story of Lucky and Kris, two gay South Asian-Americans whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka, who marry to stay in the closet.
C Pam Zhang is an American writer. Her debut novel, How Much of These Hills Is Gold, was released by Riverhead Books in 2020 and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction and longlisted for the 2020 Booker Prize. The same year, Zhang was named a National Book Foundation "5 Under 35" Honoree. Her second novel, Land of Milk and Honey, was listed in The New York Times 100 notable books for 2023.
Reid Kikuo Johnson is an American illustrator and cartoonist. He is known for illustrating several covers of The New Yorker in addition to the graphic novels Night Fisher, The Shark King, and No One Else. In 2023 he became the first graphic novelist to receive the Whiting Award for fiction.
You Exist Too Much is a debut novel by Zaina Arafat, published June 9, 2020 by Catapult. The book won the Lambda Literary Award for Bisexual Fiction in 2021.
My Autobiography of Carson McCullers is a memoir by Jenn Shapland, published April 2, 2020 by Tin House Books. In 2021, the book won the Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction, the Lambda Literary Award for Lesbian Memoir, and the Phi Beta Kappa Christian Gauss Award. Along with being longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction, it was a finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction and a Stonewall Book Award Honor Book.
Chana Porter is an American playwright, novelist, and education activist. Her debut novel, The Seep, was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction.
The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics, established in 2009, is a category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Works are eligible during the year of their first US publication in English, though they may be written originally in languages other than English.
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms, sometimes stylized as Cheer Up!, is a young adult graphic novel written by Crystal Frasier, with art by Val Wise and lettering by Oscar Jupiter. Published on August 10, 2021, by Oni Press, it tells the story of two queer high school girls, Beatrice – who is transgender – and Annie, as they try to become cheerleaders.
Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts is a graphic novel written by Rebecca Hall and illustrated by Hugo Martínez. Wake was published by Simon & Schuster on June 21, 2022.
Lee Lai is a transgender, Asian-Australian cartoonist who presently lives in Canada. In 2021, the National Book Foundation named her an honoree of their 5 Under 35 award for her debut graphic novel, Stone Fruit. The following year, Stone Fruit was a finalist for the Barbara Gittings Literature Award, Lambda Literary Award for Graphic Novel/Comics, and Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Graphic Novel/Comics, among other awards.