Graphic Novelist Panel : The Rise of the Graphic Novel

Join three graphic novelists – Lizzy Stewart, Hannah Chapman,  and Lize Meddings – for a conversation about the rising popularity of stories told in graphic novel form, how a graphic novel is conceived and created, and the inspiration behind their books.

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Lizzy Stewart is an illustrator and author currently based in London. She has written and illustrated three picture books for children and three illustrated books for adults. In 2017 her picture book 'There's a Tiger in the Garden' won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and World Illustration Award. 

Her debut full-length novel 'Alison' was published in July 2022. 

'A delicious portrait of 80s and 90s London and a more universal tale of a working-class young woman making a life in a world that has not been designed for the likes of her. For all its effortlessness [...] Alison ends up carrying a great emotional heft. It's a lovely book, and I cried at the end.' Guardian

Lize Meddings is the creator of the Sad Ghost Club, a club for anyone who's ever felt sad or lost. The Sad Ghost Club community has over half a million followers on instragram. Lize loves drawing, especially plants and animals. She currently lives and illustrates in Bristol.

She is the author of The Sad Ghost Club graphic novels, a heart-warming series about friendship, compassion and finding your kindred spirits.

'Charming, heartwarming graphic novel...ultimately it's about the power of friendship to help us step outside our loneliness, and the joy found in making communities of like-minded souls.' - Booktrust

Hannah Chapman is a writer and podcaster living in Bristol, England. She co-hosts the podcast Bonnets at Dawn and is the founder of the award-nominated anthology series Comic Book Slumber Party. 

Her graphic novel Why She Wrote features 18 women – including Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Anne Lister, and more – and asks a simple question: in a time when being a woman writer often meant being undervalued, overlooked, or pigeonholed, why did she write?