Posted in: Comics | Tagged: acting class, Agent, graphic novel, nick drnazo

Nick Drnaso's New Graphic Novel, Acting Class, For The Summer Of 2022

Nick Drnaso is the creator of the first graphic novel to be nominated for the Booker Prize, Sabrina, published by Granta in the UK. So no wonder Rowan Cope and Anne Meadows at Granta UK have been keen to get his follow-up, sold by Drawn And Quarterly and the Samantha Haywood and Evan Brown of Transatlantic Agency, to be published in the summer of 2022.

Acting Class is Drnaso's third graphic novel that follows " ten strangers who meet at a free acting class in a community center. The teacher is a mysterious figure, and his lessons are elliptical in nature, but also somehow resonate with what each participant is experiencing beyond the community center's doors. With each session, their bond to one another grows deeper as the outside world seems to fall away." An excerpt of the Acting Class appeared in the New Yorker in December 2020.

"From a short story collection to two fully formed graphic novels rich with nuance, in five short years we have witnessed the debut and maturation of one of the medium's foremost cartoonists for years to come," said Peggy Burns, Drawn & Quarterly Publisher. "Nick's restraint as a storyteller is unparalleled in making his books eerily immersive, but most of all, such abstemiousness is rare in comics. It's an honour to publish Nick and to be a small part of his success."

Other successful rights sales to the graphic novel include German rights to Anvar Čukoski at Aufbau; French rights to Ivan Apostolo at Presque Lune; Italian rights to Oscar Glioti at Coconino; Spanish rights to Catalina Mejia at Salamandra Graphic; Polish rights to Kultura Gniewu; Chinese (Simplified) rights to Ginkgo; and Japanese rights to Hayakawa.

Drnaso's debut, Beverly, received the LA Times Book Prize for Best Graphic Novel. His second book, Sabrina, was a New York Times Notable Book of 2018 and received nominations for the 2018 Booker Prize, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, the Eisner Award and the LD and LaVerne Harrell Clark Fiction Prize, among other awards.

Rowan Cope said: "Nick Drnaso is a graphic artist and literary storyteller of exceptional quality whose work reaches across genre and reveals deep and sometimes startling emotional truths. Acting Class offers an unflinching yet humane and completely compelling exploration of alienation, connection, fantasy and performance and, just as with Sabrina, Nick's unique artistry and intelligence shine through on every page. The whole team at Granta is immensely proud of Nick and the success he achieved with Sabrina, and excited to collaborate with him again and grow his readership even further with Acting Class."

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