SFZF2023 Guest of Honor

& Invited Guests

 
 

Maia Kobabe
Guest of Honor

  • Thinking Captions Reading (Fri., Sep. 1, Silver Sprocket, 6-7:30 pm)

  • Q&A (Sep. 3 at City View at Metreon)

We are thrilled to announce and in awe of our 2023 Guest of Honor Maia Kobabe.

Maia Kobabe is an author/illustrator from the Bay Area, California. Eir first full length book, GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR, won a Stonewall Honor and an Alex Award from the American Library Association in 2020. It was also the number one most challenged book in the US in 2021 and 2022.

Maia's short comics have been published by The New Yorker, The Nib, The Washington Post and in many print anthologies including ALPHABET (2015), TABULA IDEM (2017), MINE! (2018), GOTHIC TALES OF HAUNTED LOVE (2018), THE SECRET LOVES OF GEEKS (2018), FASTER THAN LIGHT Y’ALL (2018), ADVANCED DEATH SAVES (2019), HOW TO WAIT (2019), ROLLED AND TOLD (2019), THEATER OF TERROR (2019), BE GAY, DO COMICS (2020) and THE MOST IMPORTANT COMIC BOOK ON EARTH (2021). E has also illustrated the YA prose novel WE ARE THE FIRE, WE ARE THE ASHES written by Joy McCullough (2021).

Maia's next book is SAACHI'S STORIES, a graphic novel co-written with Lucky Srikumar, due out from Scholastic Graphix in 2025. Maia’s hobbies include reading 100 books per year, studying for eir Tae Kwon Do black belt and attending kpop concerts. Before setting out to work freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries.

Instagram: instagram.com/redgoldsparks
Tumblr: redgoldsparks.tumblr.com
Patreon: patreon.com/maiakobabe
Website: redgoldsparkspress.com

 

Thinking Captions Zine Reading
Friday, September 1 from 6 - 7:30 pm at Silver Sprocket
The following guests were invited by Maia Kobabe

Christine Suggs is a comic artist and designer living in Dallas, TX with their wonderful partner, 1 dog, and 2 cats. Their debut book is a YA graphic novel about spending their summers in Mexico as a teen, ¡AY, MIJA!, released in spring 2023 from Little Brown Young Readers. Christine's work explores the intersection of their identities, namely being a queer, fat, Latinx feminist who loves all things cute. Bonus facts: their day job is in app design, they are an avid Dungeons & Dragons player, and they're quite obsessed with their cats.

Instagram: instagram.com/csuggsillustration
Twitter: @csuggsillo
Website: christinesuggs.com

Laura Gao is a queer artist, author, bread lover, and everything in between. Originally from Wuhan, China, Gao immigrated to Texas where their art career began by doodling on Pokémon cards and has since blossomed to be featured on NPR, the Museum of Chinese in America, and most notably, their parents’ fridge. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Gao published the viral webcomic, "The Wuhan I Know", in response to anti-Asian racism during COVID-19. This inspired their graphic memoir, MESSY ROOTS, which debuted on the 2022 Indies Bestsellers List and has been shortlisted for the Harvey Award, Goodreads Choice Award, Texas Maverick List, and Golden Poppy Award. Besides drawing and fending off early-onset back pain, Gao enjoys climbing and binging SNL. They teleport between the Bay Area and Asia with their two precious babies: an iPad Pro and a silver racing bike.

Instagram: instagram.com/heylauragao
Twitter: @heylauragao
Website: lauragao.com

Swati "Lucky" Srikumar was born in Singapore to Indian immigrants, before moving to California as an adult. They draw comics exploring different ever changing aspects of their identity including gender, race, disability and cat ownership. They love making people laugh and making art. They never grew out of their punk phase and are currently procrastinating on cleaning the litter box. They are the co-author, with Maia Kobabe, of SAACHI’S STORIES, due out from Scholastic Graphix in 2025.

Instagram: instagram.com/diamoric.comix
Patreon: patreon.com/luckysart/posts