GRAPHIC NOVELS AND NON-NOVELS
A reading/discussion/signing featuring Jessica Abel, Dean Haspiel (a.k.a. man_size ), and Gabrielle Bell. Moderated by comics historian Peter Sanderson.

In the first event presented jointly by NYU’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies and the literary venue KGB Bar, a panel of comics writers and artists will discuss graphic novels and what American Splendor writer Harvey Pekar has called "graphic non-novels" — memoirs in the form of book-length comics. (Other examples include Art Spiegelman’s Maus and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis.)

What, precisely, is involved in writing and drawing autobiography, or autobiographically-influenced fiction, and how does that compare with writing/drawing stories that are entirely fictional? What are the special challenges of collaborating on work that straddles fiction and non-? How does one teach — and how can one learn — the art of the graphic non-novel?