Safdar Ahmed‘s graphic reportage Nonetheless Alive has acquired its fourth award this yr in Australia. His debut graphic novel about Australia’s immigration detention system now provides the Eve Pownall Award from the Youngsters’s Ebook Council of Australia to its tally – and it gained’t be out within the US till November.
The Eve Pownall Award goes to “books which have the prime intention of documenting factual materials with consideration given to imaginative presentation, interpretation and variation of fashion.” Books on this class can take care of mature themes.
The CBCA judges mentioned Nonetheless Alive was…
“A confronting, uncooked and graphic account of the historical past and remedy of asylum seekers and refugees below successive Australian governments. Difficult, detailed and well-researched, powerfully produced from a private perspective — journeys from their homelands and lived experiences are interspersed with historical past, information occasions, authorities coverage and worldwide human rights experiences and reactions. The black and white drawings, well-integrated with the textual content, are detailed and the inclusion of art work by the detainees is highly effective. The language is direct, often didactic, and emotive at instances. Metaphors (written and drawn) similar to monsters, knots and chess items are efficient in representing the detainees’ stresses and traumas.”
Creator Safdar Ahmed, who’s an artist, musician, scholar, educator, and founding member of the Refugee Artwork Mission – experiences from which knowledgeable the graphic novel – mentioned on the win,
“Oh wowsers — I’m actually honoured that my graphic novel Nonetheless Alive has gained the Eve Pownall Award within the Youngsters’s Ebook Council of Australia Awards, which I hope smooths its path into excessive faculties and the fertile brains of youthful readers.. When making this comedian I dreamed it could at some point get into excessive faculties. Younger folks all the time knock me again with their hope and optimism, so I hope the e book opens hearts and contributes in a roundabout way in the direction of a decisive change in coverage — the place Australia’s whole system of obligatory and indefinite detention meets the dustbin of historical past. As all the time my deepest thanks go to all of the individuals who collaborated and supported me on this comedian, to everybody within the Refugee Artwork Mission group who noticed it go from child steps to a completed e book over so a few years.”
The CBCA Eve Pownall Award is Nonetheless Alive’s fourth win because it debuted in April 2021 from Melbourne writer Twelve Panels Press. So far it has additionally acquired Ebook of the 12 months, and Multicultural New South Wales on the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards; and the Gold Ledger on the Comedian Arts Awards of Australia. It was additionally shortlisted by the Australian Library and Data Affiliation of their Notable Australian Graphic Novels of 2021 checklist.
Internationally, in April the e book was launched in France with éditions Cambourakis and the US version will launch November 15 by way of Fantagraphics’ Underground imprint.
The Fantagraphics synopsis to the American version of the e book,
“Safdar Ahmed visited Sydney’s Villawood Immigration Detention Centre in 2011. He introduced pencils and sketchbooks with him and started drawing with the detainees. Their tales are informed in Nonetheless Alive.
“Weaving journalism, historical past, and autobiography, Nonetheless Alive is an intensely private indictment of Australia’s refugee detention insurance policies and procedures, which aren’t in contrast to these in lots of Western nations. It is usually a looking reflection on the redemptive energy of artwork. (And loss of life steel.)”
Ahmed additionally did a 30-minute documentary with the Australian Broadcasting Firm on the e book which yow will discover right here.
Within the documentary he mentioned:
“Nonetheless Alive is a piece of graphic journalism. It’s nonfiction and it’s a collaborative work made with many individuals who I met within the Villawood detention centre, who I’ve been associates with for a few years. I believe my artwork follow is generally about storytelling, and it’s normally addressing points which can be crucial to me.”
He added,
“…Comics, significantly in the way in which they mix phrases and pictures, have that distinctive capability to mix the reasoning elements of our mind, the storytelling, logical facet of us, with the intuitive and emotional half that reaches for one thing else. Typically the phrases can relate the story, however the photographs have their very own energy.”
Congrats to Ahmed on the win – and maintain your eyes peeled for the e book in November. It seems to be to be fairly one thing.
