Jennifer Sheena "Jen" Wang (born March 22, 1984) is an American cartoonist, writer and illustrator based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. Wang has published graphic books including ''Koko Be Good,'' ''In Real Life'' (with

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog '' Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

), and '' The Prince and the Dressmaker''. Wang is a co-founder and organizer for Los Angeles-based comics festival Comic Arts LA. Jen's art work has been published in ''

Adventure Time ''Adventure Time'' is an American fantasy animated television series created by Pendleton Ward for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. The series follows the adventures of a boy named Finn (Jeremy Shada) and ...

'' and ''LA Magazine.''

Early life

Wang was born in Northern California. Wang's parents are immigrants from

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. Wang was raised in the Bay Area of California. During high school, Wang was a manga reader.

Education

Wang graduated from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...

, first majoring in film, but she changed it to

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

Career

Wang started drawing webcomics ''Strings of Fate''. In 2010, Wang wrote her first graphic novel Koko Be Good. In 2014, Wang became the co-founder and organizer of

Comic Arts Los Angeles Comic Arts Los Angeles (abbreviated as CALA or Comic Arts LA) is a comic book festival held annually in Los Angeles, California. Inaugurated in 2014 at Think Tank Gallery, the festival showcases graphic novels, comic books, and zines created by i ...

(CALA), which was held at the Think Tank Gallery in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Wang is also the creator of a

webcomic Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books. Webcomics can be c ...

called ''The White Snake.''

Awards and recognition

* 2014 Cybils Award for Best Graphic Novel for ''In Real Life'' by Cory Doctorow and Jen Wang. ''In Real Life'' was published by

First Second Books First Second Books is an American publisher of graphic novels. An imprint of Roaring Brook Press, part of Holtzbrinck Publishers, First Second publishes fiction, biographies, personal memoirs, history, visual essays, and comics journalism. It al ...

. ''In Real Life'' is based on Cory Doctorow's short story ''Anda's Game''. * 2018

Harvey Award The Harvey Awards are given for achievement in comic books. Named for writer-artist Harvey Kurtzman, the Harvey Awards were founded by Gary Groth in 1988, president of the publisher Fantagraphics, to be the successor to the Kirby Awards that we ...

for ''The Prince and the Dressmaker'' tied in a win for Best Children or Young Adult Book. It was nominated in the Book of the Year category as well. * 2019 Eisner Award - best writer/artist for ''The Prince and the Dressmaker''. * 2019 Eisner Award - best publications for teens (ages 13–17) for ''The Prince and the Dressmaker''. * 2020 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature in Children's Literature category for ''Stargazing''.

Works

This is a partial list of books written or illustrated by Wang. * 2007 ''Flight Volume 1 & 2'' * 2010 ''Koko Be Good''. As writer and illustrator. Published by

. * 2012 ''Fake Mustache''. As illustrator. Published by Amulet/Abrams. * 2014 ''In Real Life''. Illustrator. * 2014 ''The White Snake (serialized) * 2016 ''Lumberjanes: Makin: the Ghost of It''. * 2018 '' The Prince and the Dressmaker''. Published by

. * 2019 ''Stargazing''. Published by First Second.

Personal life

Wang lives in

References

External links

Official site

Jen Wang at goodreads.com

Jen Wang at npr.org

Jen Wang at comicsalliance.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Jen 1984 births American artists of Chinese descent American female comics artists American writers of Taiwanese descent American women cartoonists Artists from Berkeley, California The Believer (magazine) people Female comics writers Living people Women writers of young adult literature Writers from Los Angeles American cartoonists Women science fiction and fantasy writers 21st-century American women