The Portland Literary Festival was a hopping place a few weeks ago. Its biggest event was a visit by Tom Hanks, who last year had published Uncommon Type, a book of short stories with a recurring theme of antique typewriters. His talk, which required special tickets, was sold out weeks in advance, and the line to get in to the Schnitzer Concert Hall was easily the longest of all of the events of the day. Hanks, funny and articulate as always, came as advertised. You can hear a recording of his interview here:
After his morning talk, I was something at a loss as to where to go next, and it was by chance that I ended up at a joint interview on the subject of migration. The most interesting of the panelists was Ali Fitzgerald, a graphic artist whose recent book, Drawn To Berlin, tells her story of teaching drawing to Syrian refugees recently arrived in Berlin. An excerpt of it can be found here in The New Yorker:
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-rise-and-fall-and-return-of-the-fraktur-font
Fitzgerald’s work is a compelling testimony of the plight of the migrants she encountered, and there is much to be said about the power of visual images that a literary narrative cannot replicate. I haven’t always been a fan of graphic novels, seeing them, probably unfairly, as glorified comic books, but with the impending demise of newspapers and other print media, they may be a means by which the art of narrative illustration can survive. Judging by Fitzgerald’s work, I hope that turns out to be the case.
After the interview, I immediately purchased a copy of her book and found her at a signing table. She asked me a question that I had never encountered before from an author:
“What would you like me to draw for you?” she asked.
I answered in the only way I could think of in the moment: “Surprise me.”
She did, and I loved it. It was a hell of a way to sign a book. All of the other autographs I get going forward will now be competing for second place.
