The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, published by MCD in 2024, has been honored with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, announced on May 5. This accolade marks a historic moment as Feeding Ghosts becomes only the second graphic novel to win a Pulitzer, following Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1992, which won a Special Award. Remarkably, Hulls' work secured the award in the regular category of Memoir or Autobiography, standing out against top English prose globally. It's an impressive feat, especially considering this is Hulls' debut graphic novel.
The Pulitzer Prize, widely recognized as one of the most esteemed awards in journalism, literature, and music in the United States, is second only to the Nobel Prize on the international stage. Despite the significance of this achievement in the comics world, the news has received surprisingly little coverage. In the two weeks since the announcement, 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 win.
The Pulitzer Prize Board praised 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 narrative spans the lives of Hulls, her mother, and her grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who survived the tumultuous 1949 Communist victory in China and fled to Hong Kong. There, she penned a best-selling memoir about her experiences but later suffered a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.
Hulls' journey into the world of graphic novels was driven by a deep sense of familial duty. “I didn’t feel like I had a choice. My family ghosts literally told me I had to do this,” she explained in an interview last month. She titled her book Feeding Ghosts to reflect the nine-year process of confronting her family's haunting legacy. However, Hulls has hinted that this might be her only graphic novel. In another interview, she expressed that the solitary nature of graphic novel creation was too isolating for her. Her creative practice thrives on being engaged with the world, leading her to explore new avenues as an embedded comics journalist, working with field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote environments, as stated on her website.
Regardless of her future endeavors, Feeding Ghosts stands as a testament to the power of graphic novels as a legitimate and impactful art form, deserving of recognition and celebration beyond the realm of comics.
