Gene Luen Yang, author of the acclaimed graphic novel American Born Chinese will present”Why Comics?” on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 4 p.m., in Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library. Yang is the latest novelist to visit the Libraries as part of the popular Graphic Novel Speaker Series, which in the past has brought in Harvey Pekar, Phoebe Gloeckner, Howard Cruse and Jay Hosler. The presentation is sponsored by Penn State’s English Department and Asian American Studies Department, First-Year Studies, the University Libraries’ Charles W. Mann Jr. Lecture in the Book Arts, the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, and Library Learning Services.
American Born Chinese is Yang’s first major graphic novel. It was the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award (in 2006) and the first graphic novel to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award (in 2007). It was also featured in Best American Comics 2008 Anthology.