"Pulitzer-Winning Graphic Novel 'Feeding Ghosts' Receives Surprisingly Little Attention"

The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, published by MCD in 2024, has clinched the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, announced on May 5. This marks a historic achievement as it is only the second graphic novel to win this esteemed award, following Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1992, which received a Special Award. Remarkably, Feeding Ghosts secured the Pulitzer in the regular category of Memoir or Autobiography, competing against top-tier English prose globally. Adding to its significance, this is Hulls' debut graphic novel.

Despite being hailed as a monumental accomplishment in the comics industry, the win has received surprisingly little coverage. Since the announcement two weeks ago, only a few mainstream and trade publications, such as the Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, along with one major comic book news outlet, Comics Beat, have reported on this groundbreaking achievement.

The Pulitzer Prize Board described Feeding Ghosts as "An affecting work of literary art and discovery whose illustrations bring to life three generations of Chinese women – the author, her mother and grandmother, and the experience of trauma handed down with family histories." The novel, which took nearly a decade to create according to Hulls, explores the echoes of Chinese history across three generations. It follows Hulls' grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who fled to Hong Kong amidst the 1949 Communist victory, penned a bestselling memoir about her ordeal, and later suffered a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.

Growing up with Sun Yi, Hulls witnessed the struggles of her mother and grandmother under the burden of unexamined trauma and mental illness. Her journey led her to leave home for remote parts of the world, only to return and confront her own fears and traumas. In an interview last month, Hulls shared, "I didn’t feel like I had a choice. My family ghosts literally told me I had to do this. My book is called Feeding Ghosts, because that was the beginning of this nine-year process of really stepping into something that was my family duty."

Despite this success, Hulls has indicated that Feeding Ghosts might be her only graphic novel. In another interview, she expressed that the isolating nature of being a graphic novelist did not suit her creative process, which thrives on engaging with the world around her. On her website, she outlines her new path as an embedded comics journalist, working alongside field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote settings.

Regardless of her future endeavors, Feeding Ghosts stands as a testament to the power and potential of graphic novels, deserving recognition and celebration beyond the comics community.