Lucy Knisley
Author of Relish: My Life in the Kitchen
About the Author
Series
Works by Lucy Knisley
You Are New: (New Baby Books for Kids, Expectant Mother Book, Baby Story Book) (2019) 108 copies, 10 reviews
Pretty Little Book 12 copies
Salvaged Parts 9 copies
Searching for Wocks 3 copies
Tanzania Travelogue 3 copies
My Addiction 1 copy
Pretty/Nerdy 1 copy
Linney 1 copy
The Pobble by Edward Lear 1 copy
Associated Works
The Letter Q: Queer Writers' Notes to their Younger Selves (2012) — Contributor — 296 copies, 5 reviews
Nursery Rhyme Comics: 50 Timeless Rhymes from 50 Celebrated Cartoonists (2011) — Illustrator — 227 copies, 27 reviews
I Saw You...: Comics Inspired by Real-Life Missed Connections (2009) — Contributor — 156 copies, 9 reviews
The Graphic Canon of Children's Literature: The World's Greatest Kids' Lit as Comics and Visuals (2014) — Illustrator — 101 copies, 1 review
Noisemakers: 25 Women Who Raised Their Voices & Changed the World - A Graphic Collection from Kazoo (2020) — Contributor — 74 copies, 3 reviews
Femme Magnifique: 50 Magnificent Women who Changed the World (2018) — Contributor — 60 copies, 2 reviews
Help the CBLDF Defend Comics (Free Comic Book Day 2016) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Knisley, Lucy Louise
- Birthdate
- 1985-01-11
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Art Institute of Chicago
Center for Cartoon Studies - Short biography
- Beginning with an love for Archie comics and Calvin and Hobbes, Lucy Knisley (pronounced "nigh-zlee") has always thought of cartooning as the only profession she is suited for. A New York City kid raised by a family of foodies, Lucy is a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago currently pursuing an MFA at the Center for Cartoon Studies While completing her BFA at the School of the Art Institute, she was comics editor for the award-winning student publication F News Magazine.
Lucy currently resides in Vermont where she's working on comics among the pines. She likes books, sewing, bicycles, food you can eat with a spoon, manatees, nice pens, costumes, baking and Oscar Wilde. She occasionally has been known to wear amazing hats. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- New York, New York, USA
- Places of residence
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
Rhinebeck, New York, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- New York, USA
Members
Discussions
Relish: My Life In The Kitchenby LucyKnisley in What Are You Reading Now? (May 2023)
Reviews
Knisley recounts her adventures in birth control, conception, miscarriage, pregnancy, delivery, birth, and the early days of parenting. Her particular experiences are frighteningly common, but largely undiscussed except among closest friends and family. She discovers, like many other adults, how much we don't know about trying to become pregnant and how very much failure is built in, and how very badly the US is doing on almost all fronts (our maternal death rate has been increasing since show more 2000). It's a book both marvelously specific and broadly of interest, where her experiences are exemplars or points of entry into the data, where the pain of loss is contrasted with the joy of anticipation, and none of it looks like the movies.
Highly recommended, because Knisley's books are always entertaining and informative, but also in this case I think forewarned is a good idea. There's a lot of superstition in the practice of medicine, a tremendous amount of "helpful advice" from strangers that isn't helpful and is strange, and so many gaps in the basic science still (how many fertilized embryos fail to implant? the range of estimates is vast, but "whoa, that's a lot!" is probable).
Anyway, I'll be around if anyone wants to swap glad tidings or horror stories in comments.
Library copy show less
Highly recommended, because Knisley's books are always entertaining and informative, but also in this case I think forewarned is a good idea. There's a lot of superstition in the practice of medicine, a tremendous amount of "helpful advice" from strangers that isn't helpful and is strange, and so many gaps in the basic science still (how many fertilized embryos fail to implant? the range of estimates is vast, but "whoa, that's a lot!" is probable).
Anyway, I'll be around if anyone wants to swap glad tidings or horror stories in comments.
Library copy show less
The author of this palatable graphic memoir begins by telling us: "The book you’re reading contains a collection of my favorite stories, crammed with the taste-memories that draw them up through my mind from years ago.”
She writes, “I hope that you find your own appetite piqued….”
Well she couldn’t have been more correct about that!
Knisley was raised by food-oriented parents, who had food-oriented jobs and food-oriented friends, and we get to know about many of them in this show more not-necessarily-in-chronological-order salmagundi of food stories and suggestions.
Knisley clearly loves food, and peppers her account with recipes, colorful pictures of baking, cooking, and eating, and anecdotes about food-related experiences. My favorite chapter has to do with trying to recreate a particularly wonderful croissant she found in a small bakery in Venice:
"The layers were flaky and buttery, concealing the fresh jam in the depths of the thickest part of the crescent, where the pastry was so soft that it nearly disintegrated in my mouth. Unspeakably good.”
After innumerable unsuccessful attempts, she gave up, concluding:
"I suspect that the ingredient I lacked in Chicago was the anticipation and delight of waking on a morning of possibilities, far from home and school, in an ancient, watery city.”
I could so relate to this. I have had so many similar failures of replication, only to conclude that atmosphere and mood play huge roles in taste!
Evaluation: This little volume may never replace Marcel Proust in English departments for a paean to the evocative power of food, but for my money, it’s way more enjoyable. The art work is bright and colorful, and the text even includes restaurant recommendations. Food lovers will savor this mouth-watering tribute to food. show less
She writes, “I hope that you find your own appetite piqued….”
Well she couldn’t have been more correct about that!
Knisley was raised by food-oriented parents, who had food-oriented jobs and food-oriented friends, and we get to know about many of them in this show more not-necessarily-in-chronological-order salmagundi of food stories and suggestions.
Knisley clearly loves food, and peppers her account with recipes, colorful pictures of baking, cooking, and eating, and anecdotes about food-related experiences. My favorite chapter has to do with trying to recreate a particularly wonderful croissant she found in a small bakery in Venice:
"The layers were flaky and buttery, concealing the fresh jam in the depths of the thickest part of the crescent, where the pastry was so soft that it nearly disintegrated in my mouth. Unspeakably good.”
After innumerable unsuccessful attempts, she gave up, concluding:
"I suspect that the ingredient I lacked in Chicago was the anticipation and delight of waking on a morning of possibilities, far from home and school, in an ancient, watery city.”
I could so relate to this. I have had so many similar failures of replication, only to conclude that atmosphere and mood play huge roles in taste!
Evaluation: This little volume may never replace Marcel Proust in English departments for a paean to the evocative power of food, but for my money, it’s way more enjoyable. The art work is bright and colorful, and the text even includes restaurant recommendations. Food lovers will savor this mouth-watering tribute to food. show less
Knisley humorously addresses all the Wedding-Industrial Complex challenges my friends have discussed as they plan their weddings: the assumption that you'll diet; pressures from families, wedding planners, and others to care about things you don't care about; societal expectations about what being married means, including what marrying a man means for a bisexual woman... She does a good job, I think, of acknowledging her privileges -- she uses the word "lucky" on almost every other page -- show more while also acknowledging that planning a wedding is damn hard amid the unrealistic expectations our society sets for women. Every friend who got married in the last decade or so may be getting this for the next gift holiday. show less
As someone without kids and generally irritated about the whole hubbub about them, I found this book way more interesting than I thought I would. I always enjoy Lucy Knisley's graphic novels and her clever illustrations always connect with me. I especially enjoyed the historic bits, too, and that made me think of the whole process of reproduction as a different kind of feminine power - like the 1970s hippie lady calling the women goddesses. I'm coming around to the idea and I think this book show more should be required reading for all women. show less
Lists
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 15
- Members
- 4,484
- Popularity
- #5,588
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 382
- ISBNs
- 80
- Languages
- 6
- Favorited
- 5















































