Maia Kobabe

Maia Kobabe (, born 1989) is an American cartoonist and the author of Gender Queer: A Memoir (2019), an autobiographical graphic novel recounting Kobabe's life as a person who would ultimately identify as non-binary. Kobabe's works primarily revolve around themes of identity, sexuality, anti-fascism, fairy tales, and homesickness.

Education

Kobabe was one of the first students enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts in Comics program at California College of the Arts, and graduated in 2015.

Career

Kobabe's graphic nonfiction work has been featured in The Nib, The Press Democrat, and SF Weekly, among other publications.

Kobabe's first full-length book ' was published by Lion Forge Comics in 2019. When asked in a Time magazine interview why Kobabe wrote the book, Kobabe said:Gender Queer was made available in some school libraries but was subsequently banned by a school district in Alaska, due to its sexually explicit content. Kobabe responded to the controversy with an opinion piece in The Washington Post, suggesting that accusers were upset less by the sexually explicit images and language than by the LGBTQ themes of the book. Gender Queer was listed as one of the most banned or challenged books in September 2021 by The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom (OIF). According to a report (September 2022) from PEN America, Kobabe was the second most banned author in US school districts during the 2021–22 school year, with Gender Queer the most frequently challenged book, banned in 41 school districts. Discussing a wave of book censorship in early 2022 within the United States in a Slate interview, Kobabe said: