Sarah Shay Mirk

Sarah Shay Mirk (they/she) is a graphic journalist, editor, and teacher. In 2023, they became a volunteer editor of the collective Cartoonists for Palestine and are helping manage the publication of collective’s print anthology. In 2024, Shay launched the nonfiction comics press Crucial Comix, with collaborator Audra McNamee, where they teach classes editing and memoir comics. Shay began her career as a reporter for alternative weekly newspapers The Stranger and The Portland Mercury, where she covered political issues and numerous colorful characters. Shay is the author several books, including You Do You: Figuring Out Your Body, Dating, and Sexuality (Lerner, 2019),  Sex from Scratch: Making Your Own Relationship Rules (Microcosm, 2014), the graphic novel Open Earth (Limerence Press, 2018), and the self-published collection Year of Zines (2020). Shay holds a degree in history, with honors, from Grinnell College. She was also the 2024 Applied Cartooning Fellow at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. She identifies as white, nonbinary, and queer. In her free time, she befriends strangers’ dogs.