Kapittel welcomes Maia Kobabe to Stavanger

Maia Kobabe is best known for Gender Queer: A Memoir, a widely acclaimed graphic memoir that has also been among the most frequently challenged and banned books in the United States in recent years.

Maia Kobabe will participate in several events on September 16th and 17th.

- It’s astonishing that it should provoke so much anger that some of us are non-binary, that some of us don’t want sex – and that some wish to make art about it, through books for example. Instead of debating someone’s right to live well in their own body, and to be with others in the way they prefer, we should ask instead where all this anger comes from. Who is afraid of Maia Kobabe? We warmly welcome cartoonist and library enthusiast Maia Kobabe to Kapittel, says Ida Pallin Bostadløkken, festival director.

Kapittel’s main theme this year is sex, and Gender Queer is a book about sexuality. It is a moving and brave book about finding language for desire, boundaries and identity. For the book, Kobabe received the Stonewall Book Award and the Alex Award. Kobabe has also been nominated for several prestigious prizes, including the Eisner Award and the Lambda Literary Award.

In Norway, Gender Queer: A Memoir is published by Måltrost forlag in a translation by Sonja Dalseth and Madsen Sparler.

Banned from libraries and schools

According to the American Library Association, Gender Queer: A Memoir was the most challenged book in 2021, 2022 and in 2023, often citing the book’s themes and illustrations. Most of the controversy has taken place in the United States, but there have also been similar discussions in Norway.

In March 2023, the Illinois House of Representatives passed a bill that bars libraries from banning books, and Gender Queer was mentioned specifically during the debate.

-As book bans and censorship are increasing, and books deemed sexually explicit are especially affected, Maia Kobabe’s visit is an important reminder of what is at risk for freedom of expression and the right to read, says Marianne Wulfsberg Hovdan, Project leader, Ytringsfrihetsbyen Stavanger.

Knut Nærum. Foto: Maja Kleppe Vihovde

Knut Nærum joins Maia Kobabe on stage

At Kapittel, Kobabe will talk about comics as a storytelling form, the making of a memoir, and what it’s been like to become a target of organized censorship.

The well-known Norwegian graphic novelist and comedian Knut Nærum will join Maia Kobabe on stage. Together, they will exchange ideas and experiences of drawing and writing, and dive into authors they admire.

About Maia Kobabe

Maia Kobabe (b. 1989; e/em/eir) is a nonbinary queer cartoonist, a K-pop fan, a voracious reader, and a daydreamer. E received an MFA from the comics program at California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Eir work has appeared in outlets such as Time, NPR, and The Washington Post. Before working freelance full-time, Kobabe worked for more than a decade in libraries. In addition to Gender Queer, Kobabe co-authored Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding (with Dr Sarah Peitzmeier) and has a new middle-grade graphic novel, created with Lucky Srikumar, due in 2026.

Norwegian press on Gender Queer

(In Norwegian)

"Memoarboken om Kobabes oppvekst var den mest forbudte boken i USA i fjor, men det er liten grunn til å beskytte ungdom mot den. Kobabes modige og utleverende utforskning av egen ikke-binære identitet introduserer leserne for en rekke muligheter." Guri Fjeldberg, Aftenposten.

[Terningkast 5] “Du risikerer å bli et varmere, mer tolerant og klokere menneske av å lese denne.” Andreas Wiese, Dagbladet

“... Genderqueer [er] ikke bare en fortelling om levd liv, men en bok med ambisjoner om å vise frem veien til opplysning.” Tonje Vold, Morgenbladet

“... dette er en bok som bør leses av alle, men først og fremst er den en viktig påminner om hvor livsviktig spørsmålene om kjønn og pronomen kan være for det mindretallet denne debatten faktisk handler om.” Øyvind Holen, Dagens Næringsliv

“For meg ble boka en sterk og nyttig innføring i en del av LHBTQ-spekteret jeg visste svært lite om.” Siss Vik, Bokbrevet, NRK

Sølvberget’s podcast: Ikke les denne boka: Gender queer

Listen to Sølvberget's podcast Ikke les denne boka: Gender queer with Marianne Wulfsberg Hovdan (Ytringsfrihetsbyen Stavanger) and Sølvbergets Åsmund Ådnøy and Tomas Gustafsson.