Ellen Forney
Artist · Author
Ellen Forney is an American artist whose work combines memoir, illustration and mental-health advocacy. She is best known for the graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me and the companion guide Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life. [1]
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Career and work
Forney has worked professionally as an artist and illustrator since 1992 and has published several books of comics and illustrated memoir. [2]
Her best-known book is the 2012 graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, which became a New York Times bestseller. She later published Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, a graphic guide to maintaining mental health that was selected for JAMA’s Best Graphic Medicine. [1]
Forney also collaborated with Sherman Alexie on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She curated the National Library of Medicine exhibition Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived & Well-Drawn and created two permanent large-scale murals for Seattle’s Capitol Hill light-rail station. She has also taught comics at Cornish College of the Arts. [1]
What has been publicly discussed
“I believe there needs to be more emphasis on maintaining stability for the long term.”
— Ellen Forney [11]
