Pulitzer-Winning Graphic Novel "Feeding Ghosts" Surprisingly Underreacts

The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, published by MCD in 2024, has achieved a remarkable feat by winning the Pulitzer Prize. Announced on May 5, this accolade marks a significant milestone in the world of comics and literature. This is only the second time a graphic novel has won a Pulitzer, following Art Spiegelman’s Maus in 1992, which received a Special Award. Notably, Feeding Ghosts won in the regular category of Memoir or Autobiography, competing against the finest English prose globally, and it's Hulls' debut graphic novel.

The Pulitzer Prize, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in journalism, literature, and music in the United States, is second only to the Nobel Prize on the international stage. The win for Feeding Ghosts is a monumental achievement in the comics industry, yet surprisingly, it has received limited coverage. Since the announcement two weeks ago, only a few mainstream and trade publications, including 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 described 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 nearly a decade to create, delves into the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations. It follows the journey of Hulls’ grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who fled to Hong Kong amid the 1949 Communist victory. Sun Yi wrote a best-selling memoir about her persecution and survival but later suffered a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.

Hulls, who grew up witnessing her mother and grandmother grappling with unexamined trauma and mental illness, embarked on a personal journey to confront her own fears and traumas. This journey is what led her to create Feeding Ghosts. 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 stated, “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, she expresses her intention to transition into an embedded comics journalist, working alongside field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote environments.

Whatever the future holds for this pioneering artist, Feeding Ghosts deserves widespread recognition and celebration beyond the realm of comics, acknowledging its profound impact on literature and art.