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Rescheduled 2020 Bryant Lecture “Life Drawing with Alison Bechdel” announced as online event

By John Freeman on February 16, 2021

Award-winning American cartoonist Alison Bechdel will give this year’s rescheduled Bryant Lecture organised by the British Library online this Wednesday (17th February 2021) – an evening of sharp wit which will most definitely pass the Bechdel Test.

While the annual lecture named after Douglas W Bryant usually happen at the British Library, the COVID Pandemic precluded this, so the latest presentation in this Lecture Series, “Life Drawing with Alison Bechdel” will take place online, with free admission for British Library members.

Alison Bechdel is a cartoonist and creator of the Bechdel Test, a lens on cinema gender politics which has gained global recognition. Her work is preoccupied with the overlap of the political and the personal spheres, the relationship of the self to the world outside.

Originally best known for the long-running comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For, she came to critical and commercial success in 2006 with her graphic memoir Fun Home, which was subsequently adapted as a musical and won a Tony Award for Best Musical in 2015. Fun Home was also listed by Time magazine as one of its 10 Best Books of the Year for 2006. This was followed by her second graphic memoir Are You My Mother?

Alison recently posted three different single comic strips for her Dykes to Watch Out For series: “Pièce de Résistance”, “Tackles the Ides of Trump”, and “Ponders How to Unify a Divided Country”. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Book Review, and Granta. In 2014 she was the recipient of the MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award.

Presented in association with the Eccles Centre for American Studies at the British Library, this is an online event. Bookers will be sent a link in advance giving access and will be able to watch at any time for 48 hours after the start time.

The British Library is a charity. Your support helps the Library open up a world of knowledge and inspiration for everyone. Donate today

• Alison Bechdel is online at dykestowatchoutfor.com

• Buy books by Alison Bechdel from AmazonUK ((Affiliate Link)

• Previous Bryant Lectures – Archive

About the Author
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John Freeman

John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.

He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.