As part of CelebrateUSF, the university’s centennial event, the MFA in Writing for Young Readers is hosting an extraordinary conversation between National Book Award finalist Eugene Yelchin and New York Times bestseller/Stonewall Award Winner Dashka Slater.
Eugene’s new graphic memoir I Wish I Didn’t Have to Tell You This picks up where his National Book Award finalist The Genius Under the Table left off, revealing his emergence as an artist in the Soviet Union—and what he endured as a result of his desire to speak the truth under an oppressive regime. The book has received four starred reviews already, and no one would be surprised if it earns major awards. Eugene and Dashka will talk about how they write their challenging and beautiful books for young readers, and why the truth is always at the center of the work.
Where: Fromm Hall Xavier Room
When: 1:30–4 PM (the conversation will be from 2–3 PM, but we will have coffee, dessert, and a book signing afterward)
Cost: Free
STARRED REVIEW “An exceptional work: atmospherically illustrated and underpinned by strong but restrained feelings.”
— Kirkus Reviews
STARRED REVIEW “A detailed, poignant, and gut-wrenchingly relevant elucidation of life under a government whose autocratic practices are particularly oppressive for the humanitarian pursuits of art and love. This is in no small part due to award-magnet Yelchin’s art, the gray palette capturing the never-quite-numbing-enough psychological oppression while the limber, idiosyncratic figures—along with the author’s indispensable humor—hold tight to the humanity struggling beneath it all.”
—Booklist
STARRED REVIEW “A compelling story, and Yelchin tells it with grace, sympathy for his younger self, and a clear pain that lingers. . . The powerful intersection of art style and carefully chosen text is especially stunning. . . The illustrations are ultimately a demonstration of his considerable talents and make it clear why he felt compelled to develop his art even though it put him at significant risk.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
STARRED REVIEW “This political and artistic coming-of-age story has plenty of broadly relatable moments of indecision, stubbornness, frustration, and (often dark) humor, as its young subject figures out who he is, where he wants to be, and how to get there.”
—The Horn Book Reviews
