The Civil War, Graphically

Ari Kelman is the McCabe Greer Professor of the Civil War Era at Penn State University and the author of A River and Its City and A Misplaced Massacre, winner of the Bancroft Prize and the Avery O. Craven Award. He is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and has written for the Nation, Slate, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. His latest book, Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (Hill and Wang) is a collaboration between the award-winning historian Ari Kelman and the acclaimed graphic novelist Jonathan Fetter-Vorm. Featuring breathtaking panoramas and revelatory, unforgettable images, Battle Lines showcases various objects from the conflict along with a cast of soldiers, farmers, slaves, and well-known figures, to trace an ambitious narrative that extends from the early rumblings of secession to the dark years of Reconstruction. In their review, Publishers Weekly writes, “In 15 harrowing chapters, Fetter-Vorm and Ari Kelman's graphic take on the Civil War brings home the shattering costs of America's epochal conflict like almost no other single-volume history . . . Poignant and heartbreaking. “

Joan Hilty is an independent editor, and co-founder of Pageturner, a boutique book agency and content production company specializing in graphic novels and illustrated works, developing and managing projects for authors, literary agents, publishers, and media companies. As a senior editor at DC Comics, she directed an all-ages licensed property comics line and acquired and edited literary graphic novels, including Cairo, Cuba: My Revolution, Gone to Amerikay, Shooters, and Bad Houses. Her awards include the Eisner Award, Harvey Award, Best Graphic Story from the International Horror Guild, the Glyph Comics Award, and Best American Comics 2013. Hilty wrote and drew the syndicated comic strip Bitter Girl; and her illustrated and prose writing has appeared in the Village Voice, The Advocate, Ms. Magazine, Women’s Review of Books, and The Guardian. She is currently a faculty member at NYC’s School of Visual Arts and the Maryland Institute College of Art; a member of the PowderKeg writers’ residency; and serves on programming committees for the Miami Book Fair and Brooklyn Book Festival. She is also a founder of the independent editors group 5E.

Jonathan Fetter-Vorm is an author and illustrator. His Trinity: A Graphic History of the First Atomic Bomb was selected by the American Library Association as a Best Graphic Novel for Teens in 2013. Featuring breathtaking panoramas and revelatory, unforgettable images, Battle Lines: A Graphic History of the Civil War (Hill and Wang), is a collaboration between the award-winning historian Ari Kelman and Fetter-Vorm, which showcases various objects from the conflict (a tattered American flag from Fort Sumter, a pair of opera glasses, a bullet, an inkwell, and more), along with a cast of soldiers, farmers, slaves, and well-known figures, to trace an ambitious narrative that extends from the early rumblings of secession to the dark years of Reconstruction.