Liana Finck is an American

cartoonist A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comics illustrators/artists in that they produce both the litera ...

and author. She is the author of ''Passing for Human'' and is a regular contributor to ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

''.

Early life and education

Finck grew up in Chester, NY and studied fine art and graphic design at

The Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

in New York City, graduating in 2008. She earned a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

to travel to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and research Georges Remi, the cartoonist and creator of ''

Tintin Tintin usually refers to: * ''The Adventures of Tintin'', the comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé ** Tintin (character), the protagonist and titular character of the series Tintin or Tin Tin may also refer to: Material related to ''The A ...

''.

Career

Finck began contributing to ''The New Yorker'' in 2015 and maintains a monthly

advice column An advice column is a column in a question and answer format. Typically, a (usually anonymous) reader writes to the media outlet with a problem in the form of a question, and the media outlet provides an answer or response. The responses are w ...

comic called Dear Pepper. She appears in ''Very Semi-Serious'', an

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

documentary about ''New Yorker'' cartoonists. The film follows Finck's early meetings with Bob Mankoff, then cartoon editor for ''The New Yorker'', through the triumph of her first sale. She has been an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

at the

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

, ''Tablet'', MacDowell,

Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March ...

, and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Center. She has also contributed to ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', ''The Modern Golem'', ''

The Awl ''The Awl'' was a website about "news, ideas and obscure Internet minutiae of the day" based in New York City. Its motto was "Be Less Stupid." History Founded in April 2009 by David Cho and former ''Gawker'' editors Choire Sicha and Alex Balk ...

'', and ''Catapult''. She regularly posts her drawings to her

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

account, which has over 600,000 followers. She drew the cover of the Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber single

Stuck with U "Stuck with U" is a song by American singer Ariana Grande and Canadian singer Justin Bieber. It was released through Republic Records, Def Jam Recordings, and Silent Records Ventures as a single on May 8, 2020. Both artists wrote the song alongs ...

. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023.

Books

She received a grant from the Six Points Fellowship for Emerging

Jewish Artists Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, and used the funds to create her first

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

, ''A Bintel Brief'', published in 2014. The book is a collection of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

based on early 20th-century letters written to a

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

of the same name. Her

graphic Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of the data, as in design and manufa ...

memoir ''Passing For Human'' was published in September 2018.

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

described the book as "a

bildungsroman In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...

about an artist trying to understand her lifelong compulsion to make art." She published ''Excuse Me: Cartoons, Complaints, and Notes to Self'', a collection of comics, in September 2019. In April 2022, Finck published ''Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation,'' a graphic novel which reworks the

Book of Genesis The Book of Genesis (from Greek language, Greek ; ; ) is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its incipit, first word, (In the beginning (phrase), 'In the beginning'). Genesis purpor ...

and features a female God. ''Let There Be Light'' was longlisted for the inaugural Carol Shields Prize for Fiction in 2023.

Personal life

Finck is Jewish and lives in New York City.

Selected works

* ''A Bintel Brief'', published by

Ecco Press Ecco is a New York–based publishing imprint of HarperCollins. It was founded in 1971 by Daniel Halpern as an independent publishing company; Publishers Weekly described it as "one of America's best-known literary houses." In 1999 Ecco was acquir ...

. April 15, 2014. . * ''Passing for Human'', published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

. September 18, 2018. . * ''Excuse Me: Cartoons, Complaints, and Notes to Self'', published by Penguin Random House. September 24, 2019. .

External links

Personal website

''New Yorker'' page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Finck, Liana American editorial cartoonists American women editorial cartoonists Jewish American editorial cartoonists American women columnists American advice columnists American graphic novelists American female comics writers American female comics artists Jewish American comics writers Jewish American comics artists Artists from New York (state) The New Yorker cartoonists Writers from New York (state) 1986 births Living people People from Chester, Orange County, New York 21st-century American women writers Cooper Union alumni