Emil Ferris Awarded Guggenheim

Congratulations to graphic novelist Emil Ferris upon her being recognized in the Fine Arts category of the Guggenheim Fellowship Awards for 2021. 

 

Her book, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters (2017) won a number of awards, including: the Lambda Literary Award, the Eisner Award, the Ignatz Award, and the Fauve d’Or at the Angoulême International Comics Festival.

From the School of the Art Institute of Chicago:

 

"Emil Ferris (BFA 2008, MFA 2010) is a graphic novelist whose first book, My Favorite Thing Is Monsters, has been praised by critics since its publication in 2017. The book presents itself as the lined notebook diary of a preteen self-avowed werewolf who questions her sexual identity. Set in Chicago in the 1960s, the book is autobiographically infused as Ferris—like her protagonist Karen Reyes—was witness to the highly charged political and social climate of that time. The main character is interested in cultural subjects that have profoundly shaped Ferris herself, including B movies of the Hammer variety, Entertaining Comics (EC) horror magazines, and the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Ferris’ protagonist recreates EC-inspired horror comic covers in ballpoint pen, as well as many significant paintings that hang in the Art Institute of Chicago. Journalists have noted how the book parallels themes of monstrosity and otherness."