Miriam Libicki


Miriam Libicki is an American-Israeli graphic novelist based in Vancouver, Canada. Her work often centers on the intersection of being Jewish and American. Her past service in the Israel Defense Forces has provided both the basis of some of her work and the source of controversy in her career.

Early years

Libicki was born in Columbus, Ohio and raised as an Orthodox Jew. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr [University of Art and Design] and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia.
Libicki voluntarily served as a clerk in the Israel Defense Forces in 2000, during the time of the Second Intifada.

Career

Libicki began creating comics due to a school assignment. Working to transcribe an entry in her army service diary showed her that comics were a good way to document her military career. In 2008, she self-published her first graphic novel, jobnik!, collecting a "pretty close to autobiographical" work she had serialized in self-published issues.
In 2017, Libicki was named Writer In Residence at the Vancouver Public Library, becoming the first graphic novelist named to that position.
In 2020, she drew a story to a University of Victoria effort to document the lives of Holocaust survivors in graphic novel form, having been located for the gig via a Google search. The book saw print in 2022 as But I Live.
In addition to her career as an illustrator, Libicki teaches cartooning and illustration at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.
In 2024, the Vancouver Comics Arts Festival denounced Libicki and apologized for accepting her as an exhibitor in 2024 and 2022. The organization announced that she was barred due to "public safety concerns" arising from her having served in the IDF and the impact that would have on "those who are directly affected by the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Indigenous community members alike." Libicki received support from local authors, international creators, and indigenous artists, as well as Palestinian American author Marguerite Dabaie. Libicki issued the statement, "I believe all policing of artists' personal identities and nationalities is wrong" and noted her support for Palestinian statehood, following which the festival deleted their denunciation. The festival issued a formal apology to Libicki declaring those involved in her banning resigned from the festival or were in the process of leaving with the transition to a new management team. Libicki used the attention generated by this controversy to sell prints raising money for The Mothers' Call, a collaborative effort between Palestinian peace group Women of the Sun and Israeli peace group Women Wage Peace.

Awards and honors

In 2016, Forbes named Toward a Hot Jew one of the top ten graphic novels of the year.
She has also received the following accolades:
Libicki is married to Mike Yoshioka, a Japanese-Buddhist-Canadian. She had two children as of 2017.

Publications

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