Acclaimed Comics Journalist Featured as Hampshire Writer in Residence
Internationally renowned and award-winning comics journalist Joe Sacco will be a writer in residence this fall at Hampshire College, and will be featured this month in a moderated event, free and open to the public. Sacco is a Guggenheim fellow and a recipient of the Eisner Award and the American Book Award. In the spirit of a war correspondent, he often chronicles events in areas of the world where intense political, ethnic, cultural, and religious strife and conflict have occurred.
“Joe Sacco is the creator of an entirely original form of narration called comics journalism, which combines meticulously documented history with visual story,” says Hampshire College Professor of Creative Writing and novelist Uzma Aslam Khan. “In the words of the late cultural critic Edward Said, ‘Joe Sacco’s art has the power to detain us.’ It’s an absolute honor and treat that Sacco has agreed to be our writer in residence this fall. He will bring to our campus new approaches to interdisciplinary study, and to arts and social justice.”
As part of his residency, Sacco will participate in a conversation with Khan on Wednesday, November 18, at 5:30 p.m., in the main lecture hall at Franklin Patterson Hall. A book-signing and reception will follow.
Sacco has written and illustrated numerous books, such as Palestine (1996) and Footnotes in Gaza (2009), both of which explore the effects of the Israeli occupation on Palestinian civilians; Safe Area Goražde (2000) and The Fixer (2003), about the war in Bosnia; Journalism (2012), a collection of articles, among them several about the American military in Iraq; Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt (2012), a book about poverty in the United States cowritten with the journalist Chris Hedges; and his most recent, The Great War, a 34-foot-long panorama, accordion-folded, illustrating the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He is also a contributor to a variety of magazines and a frequent illustrator of Harvey Pekar’s American Splendor.
Sacco’s residency is sponsored by the Hampshire College Creative Writing Program, the Writing Program, and an anonymous donor.
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