Toni McNaron Lecture in Arts & Culture

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Alison Bechdel
Thu, Mar 6, 7:00pm
Cowles Auditorium, Humphrey Ctr.

Alison Bechdel, author of the critically acclaimed Fun Home and of the syndicated comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For (DTWOF), has become a cultural institution for lesbians and discerning non-lesbians all over the planet.

Hailed by Ms. magazine as "one of the preeminent oeuvres in the comic genre, period " Bechdel's DTWOF is syndicated in over 50 alternative newspapers and publications, translated into many languages and collected into a book series with over 250,000 copies in print.

Four of her books have won Lambda Awards for humor, and The Indelible Alison Bechdel won a Lambda Literary Award in the biography/autobiography category. She's also won two Vice Versa Awards for Excellence in the Gay and Lesbian Press. Bechdel's work has also appeared in Ms., The Village Voice, The Advocate, Out, Gay Comics, and many other comic books, 'zines, and anthologies. Fun Home is her first graphic novel.

Bechdel grew up in rural Pennsylvania. After graduating from Oberlin College, she moved to New York City, where she began drawing DTWOF as a feature in the feminist monthly Womanews in 1983. Twelve book-length DTWOF collections has since appeared, nine of them-including Spawn of Dykes To Watch Out For, and Hot, Throbbing Dykes to Watch Out For-published by the pioneering feminist press, Firebrand Books. The most recent volume, Invasion of the Dykes to Watch Out For, was released by Alyson Books in 2005. Her bi-weekly strip is syndicated in over 50 periodicals.

In addition to her comic strip, Bechdel has also done exclusive work for a slew of publications including Ms., Slate, The Village Voice, The Advocate, Out, and many other newspapers, web sites, comic books, and magazines. Her work has been widely anthologized and translated.

She lives near Burlington, Vermont.

Toni McNaron

Toni McNaron, Professor of English at the University of Minnesota, is a multiple award winning teacher and scholar who worked joyfully with graduate and undergraduate students for over 35 years at the University of Minnesota.

Her passion as a writer led her to explore topics ranging from diversity in the academy, gender and genre, the works of Virginia Woolf and Emily Dickinson, to the contours of her own life as a white Southern lesbian.

In recognition of her accomplishments, the Steven J. Schochet Center for GLBT Studies was pleased to inaugurate its Distinguished Lecture Series in April 2000, by introducing the Toni McNaron Lecture in Arts and Culture.