Miriam Linda Engelberg (January 7, 1958 – October 17, 2006) was a

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

ist and illustrator, whose battle with

metastatic Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

was chronicled in her bestselling comic

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

, ''Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person''. Engelberg was born to a Jewish family in Philadelphia but raised in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

as a Quaker. She began practicing Judaism during college and later converted to Catholicism. She referred to herself as a "Catholic-Quaker-Jew". She worked as a teacher which provided fodder for her and a friend, Gayle Schmitt, to write and perform a black comedy, ''Spit Out Your Gun, It's School Policy''. In 2001, at the age of 43, she was diagnosed with

. She observed the harrowing and difficult experience she had with

cancer treatment Cancer can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted therapy (including immunotherapy such as monoclonal antibody therapy) and synthetic lethality, most commonly as a series of separate treatments (e.g. ...

. These observations, drawn in Engelberg's primitive style, would eventually be published as ''Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person''. In August 2006, she revealed in her

blog A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

that her cancer had spread to her brain, and she was receiving

palliative care Palliative care (derived from the Latin root , or 'to cloak') is an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex, and often terminal illnesses. Wit ...

through home

hospice Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...

. As of October 2006, Engelberg was still continuing to publish comics through her website, although her once weekly comic updates were growing less frequent and consistent.

Death and legacy

Miriam Engelberg died on October 17, 2006, aged 48. She was survived by her husband and son. As a staff member at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, she served as both a technology trainer and resident cartoonist. Her cartoon
Planet 501c3
' was the first cartoon series depicting life in the nonprofit sector. She was credited with coining the term "accidental techie", describing many of her students who had a role as technology experts in small nonprofits despite having little or no formal training in technology. The term is widely used in the nonprofit sector and was inspiration for the book
Accidental Techie: Supporting, Managing, and Maximizing Your Nonprofit's Technology
'.

Works

* ''Cancer Made Me a Shallower Person'',

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Cor ...

, New York City
''Welcome to Planet501c3: Tales from The Nonprofit Galaxy'', CompassPoint

Accidental Techie: Supporting, Managing, and Maximizing Your Nonprofit's Technology
amazon.com Her work was also published in the ''

San Francisco Bay Guardian The ''San Francisco Bay Guardian'' was a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1966 by Bruce B. Brugmann and his wife, Jean Dibble. The paper was shut down on October 14, 2014. It was relaun ...

'',
Nonprofit Quarterly
', an

References

External links

Miriam's Blog

Obituary by CompassPoint nonprofit services

NPR Article on Cancer-Themed Graphic Novels

Planet501c3 complete collection of nonprofit cartoons
{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelberg, Miriam American female comics artists American comics writers Female comics writers Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from breast cancer Jewish American writers Jewish women writers Writers from Lexington, Kentucky Writers from San Francisco Converts to Roman Catholicism 1958 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American women artists 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women