Amy Kurzweil
Amy Kurzweil | |
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.jpg) Kurzweil in 2017 | |
| Born | October 23, 1986 Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
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| Alma mater | |
| Relatives | Ray Kurzweil (father) |
| Website | |
Official website  | |
Amy Kurzweil (born October 23, 1986)[1] is an American cartoonist and writer. In 2016, she published the graphic memoir Flying Couch. Her second graphic novel, Artificial: A Love Story was released in 2023. She draws cartoons for The New Yorker.
Life and career
[edit]Kurzweil was born in Boston in 1986.[2] Her mother, Sonya, is a psychotherapist, and her father is the futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil.[3] She graduated from Stanford University in 2009 and earned a master's degree in creative writing from the New School in New York City in 2013.[4][5] She had multiple teaching jobs in the city, including dance at public schools and English at the Fashion Institute of Technology.[6] She aspired to a career in fiction writing, but in her twenties found "how much I loved to draw".[6][7] An early cartooning influence was the work of Alison Bechdel.[6]
A graphic novel-cum-memoir by Kurzweil, Flying Couch, was published in 2016. Inspired by graphic novels such as Bechdel's Fun Home, Art Spiegelman's Maus, and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis, it tells the family history of her bubbe (grandmother) as a Holocaust survivor, her mother as a psychologist, and herself as a young woman.[7][8][9] The project began as Kurzweil's (non-cartoon) senior thesis at Stanford, and she continued to research, write, and eventually illustrate it over eight years.[3][6][7] Kurzweil drew significantly from an archive at the University of Michigan–Dearborn of oral histories of Holocaust survivors, including an interview with her grandmother.[7][10] Reviews of the book were largely positive.[3][8][11]
Kurzweil's cartoons regularly appear in The New Yorker and other outlets.[6] Her second book, Artificial: A Love Story, follows the life of her father and her grandfather, another survivor of the Holocaust.[6][12]
Bibliography
[edit]- Kurzweil, Amy (October 11, 2016). Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir. Catapult. ISBN 978-1936787333.
- Kurzweil, Amy (October 17, 2023). Artificial: A Love Story. Catapult. ISBN 978-1948226394.
References
[edit]- ^ @amykurzweil (October 23, 2020). "Hey #librascorpiocusp Happy Birthday to us! ..." (Tweet) – via Twitter. @amykurzweil (October 23, 2022). "Today I am 'reusing my post from two years ago' years old ..." – via Instagram.
- ^ "Amy Kurzweil". literaturfestival.com. Berlin International Literature Festival. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ a b c Friss, Gwenn (September 24, 2017). "Graphic memoir explores the echoes felt by a Holocaust survivor, her daughter and granddaughter". Cape Cod Times. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ "The Stanford Dollies 2006-2007". web.stanford.edu. Stanford University. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ "The New School + #SXSW: Amy Kurzweil, MFA Fiction '13, on Collaboration and Creativity". blogs.newschool.edu. The New School. March 15, 2017. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Moore, Margo (November 23, 2020). "Interview with Artist Amy Kurzweil". nypl.org. New York Public Library. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Bartels, E.B. (October 8, 2020). "Non-Fiction by Non-Men: Amy Kurzweil". Fiction Advocate (interview). Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ a b Wolk, Douglas (December 2, 2016). "The Season's Best New Graphic Novels". The New York Times. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ Bolton-Fasman, Judy (March 28, 2017). "Amy Kurzweil Draws Her Way Across Three Generations". jewishboston.com. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ Lengel, Allan (May 8, 2018). "Video: A Granddaughter, A Local Holocaust Survivor And A 'Flying Couch'". Deadline Detroit. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ Omer-Sherman, Ranen (May 3, 2016). "Flying Couch". jewishbookcouncil.com. Jewish Book Council. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
- ^ "Amy Kurzweil: 'Artificial: A Love Story'". americanacademy.de. American Academy in Berlin. November 20, 2020. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
External links
[edit]
- 1986 births
- Living people
- Writers from Boston
- American women cartoonists
- American women memoirists
- 21st-century American Jews
- 21st-century American memoirists
- 21st-century American women writers
- Jewish American artists
- Jewish American memoirists
- Jewish women writers
- Stanford University alumni
- The New School alumni
- The New Yorker cartoonists