Gene Luen Yang, Printz Award winner and two-time National Book Award finalist, was named the
National Ambassador For Young People’s Literature, 2016–2017 by the Library of Congress, the Children's Book Council (CBC) and Every Child a Reader (ECAR). Last month, he received a
MacArthur Foundation grant. I've been a reader since discovering his
American Born Chinese.
Gene was a guest at the Alternative Press Expo in San Jose. I arrived a few minutes late to his panel. He spoke on his work on the educational graphic novel series Secret Coders with artist Mike Holmes. The writer spoke about balancing the educational aspect and the narrative aspect. After a short stint on the New 52 Superman, Gene was offered the chance to do the New Superman with a Chinese superhero. He was concerned about the cultural and political land mines inherent in the series dreamed up by Jim Lee. Gene met in Burbank with Geoff Johns and agreed to do the writing. He credits his friend Greg Pak with helping him adjust to doing monthly comics. Gene's next project is a nonfiction graphic novel on one season of a high school basketball team.
After his panel, Gene sat down at the Cartoon Art Museum booth for a signing session. I dropped by after lunch and saw Gene was doing sketches for a small donation. It was the first time I'd seen Gene willing to take requests so I asked for a Hayao Miyazaki character. It was a great way to end the day at APE.
