Alison Bechdel is the author of the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For. A countercultural institution, the strip is syndicated in dozens of newspapers, translated into several languages and collected in a series of award-winning books. Utne magazine has listed DTWOF as “one of the greatest hits of the twentieth century.” And Comics Journal says, “Bechdel’s art distills the pleasures of Friends and The Nation; we recognize our world in it, with its sorrows and ironies.” In 2006, Houghton Mifflin published Bechdel’s graphic memoir, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. The bestselling coming-of-age tale has been called a “mesmerizing feat of familial resurrection” and a “rare, prime example of why graphic novels have taken over the conversation about American literature.” Bechdel lives near Burlington, Vermont.
Alison Bechdel read from her work on April 10, 2008, in Cornell’s Goldwin Smith Hall. This interview took place the following day.