Jamila Rowser and Robyn Smith’s Wash Day Diaries (Chronicle Books) and Alex Segura’s comics industry-inspired novel Secret Identity (Flatiron Books) gained greatest Graphic Novel/Comics and greatest Mystery/Thriller classes on the 2023 LA Times Book Awards over the weekend. Rowser and Smith probably the primary Black girls to be nominated and win the LA Times Book Prize Graphic Novel class.
Rowser and Smith’s Wash Day Diaries was the controversial underdog in a class that was dominated by work from main arthouse, worldwide and literary graphic novel publishers Fantagraphics, Drawn & Quarterly, and Abrams ComicArts. Chronicle Books revealed Wash Day Diaries is a graphic novel that focuses on the lives and hair routines of 4 Black femme characters within the Bronx, which itself had advanced from their Kickstarter-funded 2018 minicomic Wash Day.
Rowser who accepted the award on behalf of herself and co-author Robyn Smith believed that they had been doubtless the primary Black girls to even be nominated for this award and hoped that it will pave the best way for extra comics and graphic novel work trying on the lives of Black girls.
WE WON!!! 🏆🙌🏾 Wash Day Diaries, by me and @RoBroSmo, gained the LA Times Book Prize for the Graphic Novel/Comic class!
Thank you to the judges and @latimesfob for this award and to @ChronicleBooks for believing in our story. #bookfest #latimesbookprize #washdaydiaries pic.twitter.com/TSz3MssbnL
— Jamila thee Winner (@JamilaRowser) April 22, 2023
Rowser later tailored her 2023 LA Times Book Prize award speech right into a Twitter thread:
“Thank you to the judges and [LA Times Festival of Books] for this award and to Chronicle Books for believing in our story.
“When me and [Robyn] launched the Wash Day mini-comic in 2018 (the very first comedian I wrote), we couldn’t have imagined the attractive journey it will take us on.
“Wash Day Diaries celebrates Black girls, hair, sisterhood, and magnificence within the mundanity of Black femme life within the Bronx. We are so proud that our 27-page comedian grew right into a 192-page graphic novel that folks of all backgrounds love.
“Me & [Robyn] are the FIRST Black girls to not solely turn out to be finalists for the [LA Times Festival of Books Prize] Graphic Novels class however now to win it as effectively.
“We know we shouldn’t have to prove graphic novels like Wash Day Diaries are worth publishing, so me and [Robyn] hope this award helps open the door for many more comics like ours.”
Segura’s novel Secret Identity drew inspiration from the historical past of comics manufacturing, setting the story in a Seventies comics publishing home the place its Latinx protagonist stumbles right into a thriller as she fights to retain possession of a personality she helped to create.
Segura stated about his Mystery/Thriller win:
“When I first started this book I thought, ‘Oh, this’ll be easy, I know comics,’” Segura stated, earlier than including that this was probably the most intense journalistic endeavor of his life.
To try the opposite nominees within the comics class, you may try our earlier put up.
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