Isabel Greenberg is a British graphic novelist and illustrator. Her first book, ''The Encyclopedia of Early Earth'', was published in 2013 by

Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...

in the UK,

Little Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily D ...

in the US and Random House in Canada.

Career

Greenberg has been published in '' The Guardian'', '' The Observer'', '' The New York Times'' and Nobrow Press. In 2013, she was one of 20 leading graphic designers and illustrators to feature in the Memory Palace exhibition at the

V & A The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, sponsored by Sky Arts. An original piece of fiction by Hari Kunzru was transformed into a "walk-in graphic novel". In 2014, she was a select at Pick Me Up at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large Neoclassical complex situated on the south side of the Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadrangle was built on the site of a Tudor palace ("O ...

. She has worked with Chatham Dockyard, Tyntesfield House and The Museum of Marco Polo.

The Observer/Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize

Greenberg first entered the competition for the Observer/Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize in 2008, when she was a runner-up. She entered the contest again in 2011, and won with "Love in a Very Cold Climate," a love story about a Nord, a North Pole-dweller, and a Suit, a South Pole-dweller, who can never touch.

Graphic novels

Greenberg's first graphic novel, ''The Encyclopedia of Early Earth'' (2013), is a series of interlinking stories set in Early Earth, where her prize-winning short story was also set. Rachel Cooke, reviewing her book in '' The Guardian'', said "her wonderful book already feels like a classic" and compared her to Tove Jansson. It has been translated into German, Spanish, French and Polish. In 2016, Greenberg released her second graphic novel, ''The One Hundred Nights of Hero.'' In ''Glass Town'' (2020), parts of the Brontë

juvenilia Juvenilia are literary, musical or artistic works produced by authors during their youth. Written juvenilia, if published at all, usually appears as a retrospective publication, some time after the author has become well known for later works. ...

are retold and intersected with the lives of four Brontë children — Charlotte, Branwell, Emily and Anne, as they explore the paracosm they created. James Smart, for ''The Guardian'', wrote: "Greenberg blurs fiction and memoir: characters walk between worlds and woo their creators. ..This is a tale, bookended by funerals, about the collision between dreamlike places of possibility and constrained 19th-century lives".

Children's books

Greenberg has also illustrated several children's books. The book ''A Hundred Billion Trillion Stars'' with Seth Fishman won the 2018 Mathical Book Prize.

Personal life

Greenberg attended

Brighton School of Art Founded as the Brighton School of Art in 1859, the University of Brighton School of Art and Media is an organisational part of the University of Brighton, with courses in the creative arts, visual communication, media, craft and fashion and textil ...

, studying illustration. Greenberg currently lives in London, England.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Isabel British illustrators British graphic novelists British female comics artists Artists from London Living people Alumni of the University of Brighton Female comics writers Year of birth missing (living people)