Award-winning graphic novelist Art Spiegelman to appear at Millersville University Conference
Art Spiegelman, the Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist best known for his 1991 postmodern Holocaust graphic novel “Maus,” is scheduled to make an appearance in Lancaster County as part of Millersville University’s Spring 2022 Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide.
The conference, which features multiple events include visual art exhibits, poetry readings, performances and speakers, runs from March 17 to May 6.
Spiegelman is scheduled to appear at the conference during the P. Alan and Linda Loss Keynote Lecture “An Evening with Art Spiegleman” on Thursday, April 28 at 7 p.m. at the Winter Visual & Performing Arts Center, located at 60 W. Cottage Ave. in Millersville.
The McMinn County schoolboard voted, in a unanimous 10-to-0 decision on Jan. 10, to remove “Maus” from its eighth grade English curriculum.
Spiegelman responded with his thoughts on the decision during a CNN interview earlier today.
“I’m trying to wrap my brain around it,” Spiegelman told CNN about the school board’s vote to remove the graphic novel.
“I think they're so myopic in their focus and they’re so afraid of what’s implied in having to defend the decision to teach ‘Maus’ as part of the curriculum that it led to this kind of daffy, myopic response,” Spiegelman told CNN.
The decision to ban the book is one of many recent discussions about banning literature in the classroom.
“It has the breath of autocracy and fascism about it,” Spiegelman said in the CNN interview.