Hayley Gold’s graphic memoir Nervosa has been selected by the Graphic Medicine International Collective (GMIC) as the 2024 winner at the third annual Graphic Medicine Awards. The graphic novel about an eating disorder published by Street Noise Books was picked as the winner in their long-form category; with Elaine M. Will’s self-published anxiety minicomic Spiral Sessions the 2024 short-form pick. Manon Debaye‘s graphic novel The Cliff (translated by Montana Kane) from Drawn & Quarterly was given an honorable mention.
The Graphic Medicine Awards 2024 were announced at the conclusion of this year’s Graphic Medicine Conference, which took place at Athlone’s Technological University of the Shannon in Ireland between July 16 and 18. Two independent rounds of judges selected the shortlists and winners. The winners each received $1,000 and a trophy.
A review of Hayley Gold’s Nervosa by Karol Weaver on graphicmedicine.org said:
“Hayley Gold’s Nervosa traces the author’s experience with and treatment for anorexia nervosa. The graphic memoir illustrates Gold’s anorexia, her hospitalizations, and her attempts to navigate relationships and school as she deals with the disease and its symptoms and complications. Using color and imagery, Gold educates the reader about the disease and how it affected her. Although a difficult read due to its discussion of eating disorders and self-harm (trigger warning) and its justified critique of the health care system, especially psychiatric care, Nervosa shows that Gold is an accomplished artist and a skilled author, identities that she struggled to claim alongside the eating disorder that consumed her hopes and dreams.”
In the shortlist announcements, GMIC said about Elaine M. Will’s 12-page minicomic Spiral Sessions:
“Using beautifully realized digital ink and white highlights on a sepia-toned backdrop, Spiral Sessions feels both a clear, fresh artistic voice and a timeless artifact illustrating a most basic human emotion”
Begun in 2022, the GMIC Awards, also known as the Graphic Medicine Awards, are an initiative to spotlight work in the comics field published in the previous calendar year which shines a light on issues of mental and physical wellbeing. Initially a single award, it expanded into a two-category award in 2023. Previous longform winners have included Ronan and the Endless Sea of Stars, by Rick Louis & Lara Antal (Abrams ComicArts) in 2023; and Parenthesis, by Élodie Durand (Top Shelf) in 2022. The debut shortform category winner – in 2023 – was Josh Neufeld’s Vaccinated at the Ball: A True Story of Trusted Messengers (first published in The Journalist’s Resource).
The Graphic Medicine International Collective is a non-profit organisation that discusses, guides and supports the use of comics in the health space. It emerged from a loose affiliation of comics creators, health practitioners, educators, and academics – with the very first graphic medicine conference taking place in Chicago in 2010. The group was formalised in 2019.
GRAPHIC MEDICINE AWARD 2024 (LONGFORM)
- WINNER: Nervosa, by Hayley Gold (Street Noise Books)
- Going Remote: A Teacher’s Journey, by Adam Bessie & Peter Glanting (Seven Stories Press)
- Muscle Memory: A Survivor’s Story, by Al Davison (self published)
- The Cliff, by Manon Debaye; translated from French by Montana Kane (Drawn & Quarterly)
- Silence, Full Stop: A Memoir, by Karina Shor (Street Noise Books)
GRAPHIC MEDICINE AWARD 2024 (SHORTFORM) — for work under 25 pages
- WINNER: Spiral Sessions, by Elaine M. Will (self-published)
- Empathy 101: How medical schools are using improv theater, virtual reality and comics to help physicians understand their patients, by Josh Neufeld (originally published in The Journalist’s Resource)
- Advocating for Diastole, by Ankit Mehta, MD and Tseganesh Selameab, MD (originally published in Annals of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians)
- Communion, by Juliette Yu-Ming Lizeray (self-published)
- Medical Gaslighting, by Janice Goldberg (self-published)
