Iowa Writers' Workshop graduate Lauren Haldeman will read from her new graphic novel, Wild That We're Alive, and will be joined in conversation by Carmen Maria Machado. Described as "beautiful diary comics" by Simon & Schuster, Wild That We're Alive follows Haldeman's own life as a self-described "'Momboy:' part responsible child-rearing adult and part lovable feral kid." Praised as a "Midwestern, sweatpants-wearing Roz Chast," Haldeman "...portrays herself and those around her with affectionate self-deprecation—occasionally grumpy, rarely pretty, but always real. For fans of Lucy Knisley’s portrayals of life with both cats and children and Julia Wertz’s explorations of the ways we struggle and succeed in the work of caring for ourselves and others, Wild That We're Alive is a debut book from an exciting new voice in comics." (simonandschuster.com).

Lauren Haldeman is the author/illustrator of the graphic novels Wild That We're Alive and Team Photograph, and the poetry collections Instead of Dying (winner of the 2017 Colorado Prize for Poetry, Center for Literary Publishing, 2017), Calenday and the chapbook The Eccentricity is Zero. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Poetry, Tin House, The Colorado Review, Fence, The Iowa Review, Gulf Coast, and The Rumpus. A poet, web designer and comic book artist, she has been a recipient of the Sustainable Arts Foundation Award, a Vermont Studio Center residency, the Colorado Prize for Poetry and fellowships from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.

Carmen Maria Machado is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Dream House, the graphic novel The Low, Low Woods, and the award-winning short story collection Her Body and Other Parties. Her essays, fiction, poetry, and criticism have appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Granta, Vogue, This American Life, Harper’s Bazaar, Tin House, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, The Believer, Guernica, Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, Best American Nonrequired Reading, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, Yaddo, Hedgebrook, and the Millay Colony for the Arts. She is the former Abrams Artist-in-Residence at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Readings at Prairie Lights are sponsored by the Writing University.}