"Feeding Ghosts" Wins Pulitzer, Yet Receives Minimal Reaction

Tessa Hulls' debut graphic novel, Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir, published by MCD in 2024, has achieved a remarkable milestone by winning the Pulitzer Prize in the Memoir or Autobiography category on May 5. This accolade marks the second time a graphic novel has been honored with a Pulitzer, following Art Spiegelman’s Maus, which won a Special Award in 1992. Notably, Feeding Ghosts stands out as it triumphed in a regular category, competing against top-tier English prose memoirs and autobiographies worldwide.

The Pulitzer Prize, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the fields of journalism, literature, and music in the United States, is second only to the Nobel Prize on the international stage. This achievement by Hulls is a significant event in the comic industry, yet it has received surprisingly little media attention. Since the announcement two weeks ago, coverage has been sparse, with only a few mainstream and trade publications like Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, along with one major comic book news outlet, Comics Beat, reporting 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 novel, which took nearly a decade to complete, explores the profound impact of Chinese history on three generations of women. Hulls' grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist, experienced the upheaval of the 1949 Communist victory, fled to Hong Kong, and wrote a best-selling memoir about her ordeal before suffering a mental breakdown.

Hulls' journey to create Feeding Ghosts was deeply personal. Growing up with Sun Yi, she witnessed her mother and grandmother grappling with unexamined trauma and mental illness. This led Hulls to initially escape to remote parts of the world, only to return later to confront her own fears and generational traumas. "I didn’t feel like I had a choice. My family ghosts literally told me I had to do this," Hulls shared in a recent interview. She described her work as a "family duty," a sentiment reflected in the title Feeding Ghosts, which symbolizes her nine-year process of engaging with her family's past.

Despite the success of her debut, Hulls has indicated that Feeding Ghosts might be her final graphic novel. In another interview, she explained, "I learned that being a graphic novelist is really too isolating for me. My creative practice relies on being out in the world and responding to what I find there." On her website, Hulls announces her intention to transition into an embedded comics journalist, collaborating with field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote environments.

As Tessa Hulls embarks on this new chapter in her career, Feeding Ghosts remains a testament to the power and legitimacy of graphic novels as a form of literary art. It deserves recognition and celebration beyond the confines of the comic world, highlighting the profound impact such works can have on our understanding of history, trauma, and family.