The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, published by MCD in 2024, has been awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, announced on May 5. This accolade marks a significant achievement, as it is only the second time a graphic novel has received this honor, following Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1992, which won a Special Award. Remarkably, Feeding Ghosts secured victory in the regular category of Memoir or Autobiography, competing against the finest English prose globally, and it is Hulls' debut graphic novel.
Considered one of the most prestigious awards in the US for journalism, literature, and music, second only to the Nobel Prize internationally, the Pulitzer Prize's recognition of Feeding Ghosts is a monumental achievement in the world of comics. However, despite its significance, the news of this win has received surprisingly little coverage. Since the announcement two weeks ago, only a few mainstream and trade publications, such as Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, along with one major comic book news outlet, Comics Beat, have reported on the award.
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 graphic novel, which took Hulls nearly a decade to create, explores the impact of Chinese history across three generations. Hulls' grandmother, Sun Yi, was a journalist in Shanghai caught in the upheaval following the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, she authored a bestselling memoir about her ordeal and survival, yet she later succumbed to a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.
Hulls' narrative delves into her own experiences growing up with Sun Yi, witnessing the struggles of her mother and grandmother under the burden of unaddressed 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, a process she describes as a "generational haunting" that could only be healed through familial love. In an interview last month, Hulls explained, "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 the success of her debut, Hulls has indicated that Feeding Ghosts might be her last graphic novel. In another interview, she shared, "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 expresses her intent to transition into becoming an embedded comics journalist, working alongside field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote environments.
Whatever the future holds for this groundbreaking artist, Feeding Ghosts deserves recognition and celebration beyond the realm of comics and within the broader literary community.
