Marisa Acocella is the New York Times best-selling author of the graphic novels The Big She-Bang (which you can buy in our Bookshop storefront) and Ann Tenna, the graphic memoir Cancer Vixen, and Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? She is also a cartoonist for The New Yorker and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Glamour, and O, The Oprah Magazine. A breast cancer survivor, she is the founder of the Marisa Acocella Foundation, which, through a grant from Bloomingdale’s, funds the free Marisa Acocella Empowerment Program that includes holistic therapies and journaling classes and more for women with breast cancer and breast cancer survivors at the Mount Sinai Best Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center.
On February 23rd, Marisa will join Matthew Gavin Frank, Walter Mosley, and Renee Watson in our next edition of “Seriously Entertaining” where they will each muse on the theme “I Have Dreamed.” Register here for the show!
What are you reading right now for solace or escape or entertainment?
The Gospels of Mary, Editor Marvin Meyer
If you could live inside a fictional world, which one would you choose?
The Pleroma, Heaven in the Nag Hammadi codices. I would love to witness the creation of the Universe.
Are there any quotes you use to inspire you?
If you have knowledge but lack love, then you lack knowledge altogether.–Mary Magdalene
What writer would you like to share with the world and why?
Florence Scovell Shinn. Through her, I found that life is how you perceive it. Her advice is priceless. Her optimism transcends time.
