New Newlevant Work Coming Next Year

I’m thrilled to hear that we’re going to get a collection of Hazel Newlevant’s No Ivy League. Publishers Weekly reports that Lion Forge (where Newlevant is an associate editor) will be publishing the 200-page graphic memoir in late 2018.

I’ve read the minicomics out so far, and I’m eager to see what happens. It’s the story of when Newlevant

was 17 years old and working a summer job clearing ivy from a forest near Portland, Oregon, to make money to go to a concert. Newlevant, white, home schooled, and affluent, found herself working alongside African American teens for the first time. She reports a black teen for a sexual insult and is forced to confront the reality of racial insularity and her own white privilege.

Like Newlevant’s other work, this is the kind of story that tackles topics of heavy current interest and wouldn’t have been published just a few years ago. I admire her candor and courage in making these kinds of comics — plus, I love her art style, with its directness and richness.

Newlevant has a few preview pages posted at her website, and Heidi MacDonald has another set.