Bio
Alison Bechdel (September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. She is best known for the comic strip Dykes To Watch Out For and the graphic novel Fun Home. Her work is often autobiographical, focusing on family relationships and lesbian identity.
Bechdel was born in Lock Haven Pennsylvania. She spent her childhood playing in her father’s funeral home, which she and her siblings nicknamed the “Fun Home” and drawing. She attended Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington Massachusetts and Oberlin College in Ohio.
In 1983 Bechdel began writing Dykes To Watch Out For, a comic strip about a group of lesbians living in a small college town. It quickly became popular and ran for twenty-five years.
Bechdel has also published two graphic memoirs, both focusing on her family: Fun Home (2006) about discovering shortly before her father’s death that he was a closeted bisexual man and Are You My Mother? (2012) exploring her difficult relationship with her mother through the lens of psychoanalysis. Both were critically praised.
Bechdel was awarded a MacArthur genius grant in 2014. She currently lives in Vermont.
Further Reading
- Alison Bechdel (dykestowatchoutfor)
- “Celebrated Cartoonist Shares Her Experience At The Rock” Bard College At Simon’s Rock.
- Hudson, Genevieve. “On Finding A Hero In Alison Bechdel.” Literary Hub. 20 March, 2018.
- Nash, Tom. “Biography: Alison Bechdel-Graphic Novelist.” The Heroine Collective. 31 August 2015.
- Ray, Michael. “Alison Bechdel.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 19 March 2018.