As Mia learns to revive the old structures and grows closer to her crew, she reflects on her past and how, though she's learned to live without Grace, she still longs to reconnect - or at least, to say goodbye.Ĭlose overlay Buy Featured Book Title On a Sunbeam Author Tillie Walden It's also about Mia's first love, her high school girlfriend, Grace, and her first heartbreak, when they were separated. It tells the story of a young woman named Mia, who joins a space-faring construction crew that restores old buildings. On a Sunbeam is less directly autobiographical. I thought I was on the ice again.' So she took a few months to think about it, eventually beginning the school project that would become her Eisner-winning graphic novel. 'I physically couldn't draw myself on the ice, I was getting so stressed out. She tells me it wasn't easy to explore that part of her past - when she first tried, she says, she froze. Starting with her growing disillusionment with the costumes, the judging, the culture of competition, Walden depicts her decision to quit for good, just as she was also coming to terms with being gay. Spinning is Walden's goodbye - of sorts - to her adolescence as a competitive figure skater. This year alone, her graphic memoir Spinning won the Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work, and her webcomic On a Sunbeam was published in book format. Her work often features young female protagonists - sometimes herself - coming of age. Tillie Walden is only 22 years old, but she's already published six graphic novels. Your purchase helps support NPR programming.

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Tillie walden on a sunbeam