The 41st annual Los Angeles Times Book Prizes were held during a virtual ceremony last night, and Bishakh Som‘s short story collection “Apsara Engine” was named the best Graphic Novel/Comics of 2020.
The book, published last April by the Feminist Press of CUNY (City University of New York), features eight stories exploring “questions of gender, the body, and existential conformity.” Equal parts inspired by science fiction and traditional mythology, the protagonists include “a woman [who] drowns herself in a past affair, a tourist [that] chases another guest into an unforeseen past, and a nonbinary academic research[ing] postcolonial cartography.”
“Apsara Engine” marked the fiction debut of Som, a Brooklyn-based artist and writer who specializes in watercolor. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, BuzzFeed, the Boston Review, and the Brooklyn Rail. Her other books include “Spellbound: A Graphic Memoir,” The Prefab Bathroom: An Architectural History (written by Deborah Schneiderman), and “We’re Still Here: An All-Trans Comics Anthology.”
Other nominees for this year’s prize included Yeon-sik Hong’s family meal-themed graphic novel “Umma’s Table” (translated by Janet Hong); school romance manga “Blue Flag” (vol. 1-4) by KAITO; political satire “Sports is Hell” by Ben Passmore; and “Come Home, Indio: A Memoir” by Native American cartoonist Jim Terry.
You can read the full list of this year’s winners at the press release here.
