The graphic novel Feeding Ghosts: A Graphic Memoir by Tessa Hulls, published by MCD in 2024, has been awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, as announced on May 5. This remarkable achievement marks Feeding Ghosts as only the second graphic novel to ever win this accolade, following Art Spiegelman’s Maus in 1992, which received a Special Award. Notably, Feeding Ghosts secured the prize in the regular category of Memoir or Autobiography, competing directly with the finest English prose submissions worldwide. Impressively, this is Hulls' debut graphic novel.
The Pulitzer Prize, widely regarded as the most prestigious award in the fields of journalism, literature, and music within the United States, stands second only to the Nobel Prize on the international stage. The recognition of Feeding Ghosts represents a significant milestone in the world of comics, yet the coverage of this groundbreaking win has been unexpectedly sparse. Since the announcement two weeks ago, only a few mainstream and trade publications, such as the Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, along with one major comic book news outlet, Comics Beat, have reported on this achievement.
The Pulitzer Prize Board described Feeding Ghosts as "An affecting work of literary art and discovery whose illustrations bring to life three generations of Chinese women – the author, her mother and grandmother, and the experience of trauma handed down with family histories." The narrative follows the reverberations of Chinese history across three generations, focusing on Hulls' grandmother, Sun Yi, a Shanghai journalist who was caught up in the upheaval following the 1949 Communist victory. After fleeing to Hong Kong, Sun Yi penned a best-selling memoir about her persecution and survival, but later succumbed to a mental breakdown from which she never recovered.
Hulls, who witnessed the struggles of both her mother and grandmother under the weight of unexamined trauma and mental illness, initially coped by traveling to the most remote corners of the globe. However, she eventually returned to confront her own fears and traumas, a process she described as a generational haunting that could only be healed through family love. In an interview last month, Hulls stated, "I didn’t feel like I had a choice. My family ghosts literally told me I had to do this. My book is called Feeding Ghosts, because that was the beginning of this nine year process of really stepping into something that was my family duty."
Despite this monumental achievement, Hulls has expressed that Feeding Ghosts might be her first and last graphic novel. In another interview, she shared, "I learned that being a graphic novelist is really too isolating for me. My creative practice relies on being out in the world and responding to what I find there." On her website, Hulls indicates her future plans to become an embedded comics journalist, working alongside field scientists, indigenous groups, and nonprofits in remote environments.
Regardless of what the future holds for this innovative artist, Feeding Ghosts merits widespread recognition and celebration beyond the confines of the comics community and into the broader world of literature and art.
