Overview

Ali Fitzgerald is an artist trying to find herself in a rapidly changing city facing an influx of asylum seekers. In Berlin, she teaches an art class to displaced people who have traveled from war-torn countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. Given Fitzgerald's encouragement, her students take pen in hand and express their painful memories of home and cautious optimism about their new life. Revealing the humanity behind the politics of immigration, Drawn to Berlin is about loss, community, and the art that binds people together.

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9781683961321

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Reviews

Fitzgerald celebrates the cathartic powers of art in her memoir recalling comic workshops she led in Berlin's refugee shelters. This ode to her students isn't just a portrayal of a city in flux or a people displaced--it is a portrait of the power of art. Fitzgerald's somber, black-inked drawings are a good match to her serious, introspective tone but still leave room for lightness in the form of white space, expressive and smiling faces, and the off-the-page connections made through art. One of the finest pieces of comics nonfiction I've read in years.

One of the finest pieces of comics nonfiction I've read in years. Fitzgerald celebrates the cathartic powers of art in her memoir recalling comic workshops she led in Berlin's refugee shelters. This ode to her students isn't just a portrayal of a city in flux or a people displaced--it is a portrait of the power of art. Fitzgerald's somber, black-inked drawings are a good match to her serious, introspective tone but still leave room for lightness in the form of white space, expressive and smiling faces, and the off-the-page connections made through art.

Fitzgerald celebrates the cathartic powers of art in her memoir recalling comic workshops she led in Berlin's refugee shelters. Fitzgerald's sinuous inks capture [her students'] faces and their creations with warm dexterity--her depictions of children and their drawings are especially tender. This ode to her students isn't just a portrayal of a city in flux or a people displaced--it is a portrait of the power of art.

Author Information

Ali Fitzgerald is a comic columnist for The New Yorker, where she also contributes writing and visual essays. Her popular webcomic series, Hungover Bear and Friends, was published by McSweeney's and she has contributed regular comics to The New York Times and New York Magazine. Her graphic nonfiction book, Drawn to Berlin: Comic Workshops in Refugee Shelters and Other Stories from a New Europe (Fantagraphics, 2018) was named one of the best comics of 2018 by Vulture and won the Independent Publisher's award for best graphic book of 2019. Fitzgerald's artwork has been exhibited internationally and she has shown in institutions like the Haus am Luetzowplatz, The Austin Museum of Art, the Center for Book Arts, and SP2 Gallery. She often works with museums and urban spaces on comics and public art projects. In late 2021, she created a series of murals for the Berlin Subway and in 2023, she was nominated for the Cartoonist Studio Prize for ""Iconic,"" a comic commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art. Born in Oakland, CA, she graduated with an MFA from the University of Texas at Austin, and lives in Paris.

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