{"id":51,"date":"2018-04-24T19:44:16","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T19:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2018-04-27T16:20:55","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T16:20:55","slug":"alison-bechdel","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/alison-bechdel\/","title":{"rendered":"Alison Bechdel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-173 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/442\/2018\/04\/download-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"184\" height=\"275\" \/><\/p>\n<h4>Bio<\/h4>\n<p>Alison Bechdel (September 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist. She is best known for the comic strip <em>Dykes To Watch Out For <\/em>and the graphic novel <em>Fun Home. <\/em>Her work is often autobiographical, focusing on family relationships and lesbian identity.<\/p>\n<p>Bechdel was born in Lock Haven Pennsylvania. She spent her childhood playing in her father\u2019s funeral home, which she and her siblings nicknamed the \u201cFun Home\u201d and drawing. She attended Bard College at Simon\u2019s Rock in Great Barrington Massachusetts and Oberlin College in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>In 1983 Bechdel began writing <em>Dykes To Watch Out For, <\/em>a comic strip about a group of lesbians living in a small college town. It<em>\u00a0<\/em>quickly became popular and ran for twenty-five years.<\/p>\n<p>Bechdel has also published two graphic memoirs, both focusing on her family: <em>Fun Home<\/em> (2006) about discovering shortly before her father\u2019s death that he was a closeted bisexual man and <em>Are You My Mother? <\/em>(2012) exploring her difficult relationship with her mother through the lens of psychoanalysis. Both were critically praised.<\/p>\n<p>Bechdel was awarded a MacArthur genius grant in 2014. She currently lives in Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Further Reading<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/dykestowatchoutfor.com\/\">Alison Bechdel (dykestowatchoutfor)<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/simons-rock.edu\/why-simons-rock\/rocker-community\/alumni-stories\/alison-bechdel.php\">\u201cCelebrated Cartoonist Shares Her Experience At The Rock\u201d Bard College At Simon\u2019s Rock.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/lithub.com\/on-finding-a-hero-in-alison-bechdel\/\">Hudson, Genevieve. \u201cOn Finding A Hero In Alison Bechdel.\u201d Literary Hub. 20 March, 2018.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theheroinecollective.com\/alison-bechdel-graphic-novelist\/\">Nash, Tom. \u201cBiography: Alison Bechdel-Graphic Novelist.\u201d The Heroine Collective. 31 August 2015.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/biography\/Alison-Bechdel\">Ray, Michael. \u201cAlison Bechdel.\u201d Encyclopedia Britannica. 19 March 2018.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/alison-bechdel\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Alison Bechdel<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":943,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/943"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.mtholyoke.edu\/westernmassqtwriters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}