Shay Mirk and Eleri Harris: Making Nonfiction Comics

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.

Eleri Harris (she/her) is an Eisner award-winning cartoonist, journalist and editor working on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country in Australia’s national capital. Her non-fiction history, science and reportage comics have been exhibited and published all over the world. For a decade she was Features Editor at US-based comics website and magazine, The Nib. Eleri has spoken about the practice and art of non-fiction comics making at conferences in the US, Australia, India and Peru. She is also a regular guest lecturer in comics journalism at the University of Technology Sydney, The Center for Cartoon Studies and The California College of the Arts. From 2019-2023, Eleri was co-director of the Comic Art Workshop, a grassroots organisation supporting remote residencies for ambitious comics projects. She loves drawing tiny pictures in her studio at Gorman Arts Centre, playing make-believe with her kids and walking in the bush.