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2023 EGL Award Winners Announced

By | June 6th, 2023
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Several of the winners of the Denver-based Pop Culture Classroom’s sixth annual Excellence in Graphic Literature (EGL) Awards, honoring the year’s best fiction and non-fiction graphic novels/collections across multiple age ranges, were announced yesterday. Winners included Kate Beaton’s much lauded memoir “Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands,” Tyler Page’s ADHD-themed autobiography “Button Pusher,” and (in spite of publisher AfterShock’s bankruptcy) Ted Anderson and Tara O’Connor’s YA mental health-centered superhero OGN “Side Effects.”

Without further ado, here is the full list of winners (highlighted in bold) and nominees from yesterday’s categories:

Children’s Award Finalists – Fiction:

Art by Sas Milledge

– “Alcatoe and the Turnip Child” by Isaac Lenkiewicz (No Brow, US Inc. / Flying Eye Books)

– “Hilda: The Trolberg Stories” by Luke Pearson (No Brow, US Inc. / Flying Eye Books)

Mamo” by Sas Milledge (BOOM! Studios)

– “Minecraft: Open World — Into the Nether” by Stephanie Ramirez (Dark Horse)

– “Prunella and the Cursed Skull Ring” by Matthew Loux (First Second Books)

– “Putuguq and Kublu and the Attack of the Amautalik” by Roselynn Akulukjuk, Danny Christopher, and Astrid Arijanto (Inhabit Media)


Middle-Grade Award Finalists – Fiction:

Frizzy” by Claribel A. Ortega and Rose Bousamra (First Second Books)

– “Ghosts of Science Past” by Joseph Sieracki and Jesse Lonergan (BIG, an Imprint of Humanoids)

– “Sisters of the Mist” by Marlyn Spaaij (Nobrow US Inc. / Flying Eye Books)

– “Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, The Graphic Novel” by Robert Venditti, Kwame Mbalia, and Olivia Stephens (Disney)

– “Twig” by Skottie Young and Kyle Strahm (Image Comics)

– “Wynd” by James Tynion IV and Michael Dialynas (BOOM! Studios)


Middle-Grade Award Finalists – Non-Fiction:

– “Alice On the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War” by Gaspard Talmasse (Life Drawn, an Imprint of Humanoids)

Button Pusher” by Tyler Page (First Second Books)

– “The First Heart Transplant” by Brandon Terrell and Dante Ginevra (Graphic Universe)

– “Magical History Tour Vol. 7: Gandhi” by Fabrice Erre and Sylvain Salvoia (Papercutz)

– “Magical History Tour Vol. 8: The Vikings” by Fabrice Erre and Sylvain Salvoia (Papercutz)

– “Science Comics: Bridges — Engineering Masterpieces” by Dan Zettwoch (First Second Books)


Young Adult Award Finalists – Fiction:

Art by Tara O'Connor

Side Effects” by Ted Anderson and Tara O’Connor (Seismic Press)

– “The Stretcher Bearers” by Reid Beaman and Ryan Beaman (Dead Reckoning)

– “Thieves” by Lucie Bryon (Nobrow US Inc. / Flying Eye Books)

– “Twelfth Grade Night” by Molly Horton Booth, Stephanie Kate Strohm, and Jamie Green (Disney Publishing Worldwide, Disney Hyperion)

– “Unretouchable” by Sofia Szamosi (Graphic Universe)

– “The Well” by Jake Wyatt and Choo (First Second Books)


Young Adult Award Finalists – Non-Fiction:

– “But I Live” by Barbara Yelin, Gilad Seliktar, and Miriam Libicki (New Jewish Press)

– “Improve: How I Discovered Improv” by Alex Graudins (First Second Books)

– “Just Another Meat-Eating Dirtbag” by Michael Anthony and Chai Simone (Street Noise Books)

– “Movements and Moments” by Various (Drawn and Quarterly)

Victory. Stand! — Raising My Fist for Justice” by Tommie Smith, Derrick Barnes, and Dawud Anyabwile (Norton Young Readers)

– “We Survived the Holocaust” by Frank Baker and Tom Ogline (Image and Wonder)


Adult Award Finalists – Fiction:

Art by Filipe Andrade

– “The Keeper” by Tananarive Due, Steven Barnes, and Marco Finnegan (Abrams ComicArts)

– “The Last Session: Roll for Initiative” by Jasmine Walls and Dozerdraws (Mad Cave Studios)

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr” by Ram V and Filipe Andrade (BOOM! Studios)

– “The Night Eaters: She Eats the Night” by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda (Abrams ComicArts)

– “Ripple Effects” by Jordan Hart and Bruno Chiroleu (Fanbase Press)

– “Shuna’s Journey” by Hayao Miyazaki (First Second Books)


Adult Award Finalists – Non-Fiction:

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Beaton (Drawn and Quarterly)

Continued below

– “Look Again” by Elizabeth Trembley (Street Noise Books)

– “Radical: My Year with a Socialist Senator” by Sofia Warren (Top Shelf Productions)

– “Ronan and Endless Sea of Stars” by Rick Louis and Lara Antal (Abrams ComicArts)

– “Vann Nath: Painting the Khmer Rouge” by Matteo Mastragistino and Paolo Castaldi (Life Drawn, an Imprint of Humanoids)

– “What is Home, Mum?” by Sabba Khan (Street Noise Books)


First held in 2018, the EGL Awards were originally presented at the Fan Expo Denver, which will be held later this year on the weekend of June 30. The winners for Book of the Year, and the Mosaic Award for diverse stories and perspectives, will be revealed on Sunday, June 11; we’ll update this article then. You can check out the nominees in those categories in the meantime respectively here and here.


Christopher Chiu-Tabet

Chris is the news manager of Multiversity Comics. A writer from London on the autistic spectrum, he enjoys tweeting and blogging on Medium about his favourite films, TV shows, books, music, and games, plus history and religion. He is Lebanese/Chinese, although he can't speak Cantonese or Arabic.

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