Books
Out in October 2020, Doodling for Writers, is designed to encourage and inspire writers to draw. It embodies my philosophy that anyone can draw and that drawing can be joyful, fun and empowering. Early reviews for amazing writers:
“I love this book! Insightful, instructive, charming, and encouraging, Rebecca Fish Ewan’s prompts and provocations will open new doors into your writing practice – and a drawing practice, too. In Doodling for Writers, erasers are like editors, lines have – or are – their own vocabulary, writers can be deciduous, and pleasure is paramount. A mix of practical advice and inspiring prompts, this book is a must for any writer who wants to enrich their process. It’s also a gentle but complete rebuttal of the all-too-common claim, “I can’t draw.” You can! And this book delightfully shows you how.”
Randon Billings Noble, author of Be with Me Always
“Rebecca Fish Ewan’s Doodling for Writers gently takes the reluctant drawer on a masterful journey into the vast world of doodling. Full of easy to follow prompts and direct ways to connect doodling to the writing process, this book will be a must-have on any writer’s shelf. It’s funny, rich, irreverent and profoundly relevant to today’s creatives.”
Laraine Herring, author of A Constellation of Ghosts: A Speculative Memoir with Ravens.
“A delightful and wise guide to creative empowerment through the understated power of the doodle. Rebecca Fish Ewan is the perfect drawing buddy and Doodling for Writers contains a wealth of practical advice to get you drawing and visual perspectives to enrich your writing. It’s essential reading for any writer who draws or who aspires to, even if you doubt your artistic abilities. With this book as your companion, you’ll be happily drawing before you know it.”
Vanessa Berry, author of Mirror Sydney
“Rebecca Fish Ewan’s Doodling for Writers is a super-fun book, but it’s also subversive, giving a view into the mechanics of creativity while posing as a craft book. Not only will this wonderful volume take a seat on the shelf next to Hillary Chute’s Why Comics?, Scott McLoud’s Making Comics, and Lynda Barry’s Syllabus—it extends the conversation about how visual thinking can help us all. All writers benefit from a comics mindset, Fish Ewan proposes. Part an inspirational call to one’s inner artist, part a compendium of engaging and inspiring prompts, part a quintessential work of show don’t tell, Doodling for Writers is full of good cheer and wise words. One wants to caution the reader: don’t be fooled, this is a weighty book. But in the end, it’s a call to enjoy the process and above all have good time.”
Elizabeth Kadetsky, author of The Memory Eaters
My cartoon/verse memoir By the Forces of Gravity is now out Books by Hippocampus ! The story spans the time when I dropped out of fifth grade, left home and met a girl who forever changed my perception of the universe.
It’s available through:
Books by Hippocampus, the publisher
Indiebound (also provides services to purchase from your local indie bookstore)
Amazon
Itasca Books, the indie distributor
Press about By the Forces of Gravity and my writing life:
Ariel Gore, Lambda award-winning author, Interviewed me about the book and drawing for Psychology Today: Drawing Out Grief
I was on The Creative Nonfiction Podcast, interviewed by the host, Brendan O’Meara, episode 106. I got to talk about craft, grief, drawing and finding the voice in free verse form. Give it a listen!
Visual Interview on Fear Not Lit (September 5, 2018). They sent me a disposable camera and I snapped pictures for a month, then sent it back. They asked me questions about my writing life. And made this cool visual interview.
Melissa Grunow, author of Realizing River City reviewed the book for The Coil Magazine (July 22, 2018): Mesmerized by the Cosmos: On Rebecca Fish Ewan’s ‘By the Forces of Gravity
Lancaster Newspaper published two articles about the book and Hippocampus. These articles ran online (links below) and in the print version of the newspaper, which was so awesome to see.
It took years for author to find the voice with which to write her memoir, article by July 15, 2018
Lancaster founder of online literary magazine ventures into book publishing with a ‘unique beast,’ article by July 15, 2018. I love that my book is a ‘unique beast’!
Praise for By the Forces of Gravity:
“Reading By the Forces of Gravity is a wonderfully unusual experience. By combining poetry, illustration and comics, Rebecca went completely outside of the traditional storytelling format and created a wholly captivating book that takes the reader through the entire spectrum of emotion, from heartbreak to hilarity. But besides the wonderfully anomalous narrative, Rebecca’s real talent lies in her ability to capture exactly what it feels like to be young, confused, and fascinated by the world, and relay that information in a way that feels honest, real, and raw, which is really all I want in a story, because that’s all that really matters.”—Julia Wertz, author of Tenements, Towers & Trash
“By the Force of Gravity is more than just a fun and intriguing story of a friendship between two girls, rather it’s a memoir full of vibrant words and engaging drawings that together shows us what it means to be a human to one another in this world. I never thought that I would call a book my friend, but Fish Ewan’s fresh voice pulled me into her story and now I never want to leave it. She has created an exceptional reading experience.”—Chelsey Clammer, author of Circadian
“By the Forces of Gravity is like nothing you’ve ever read. Rebecca Fish Ewan has invented a wildly unique new genre that will transport you to a wildly unique time and place where love and experimentation reigned, children were intentionally left unparented, and everyone, it seemed, spent their days chasing far-out trips. In this vividly magical and terrifying world, a once-in-a-lifetime friendship blooms between two girls. At turns utopian and tragic, By the Forces of Gravity will forever change the way you think about love, childhood, the meaning of family, and what it means to be fully alive.“ —Ariel Gore, author of We Were Witches
“An unflinching work of tender beauty, By the Forces of Gravity is an intimate memoir to be savored, re-read, and shared with your own ‘soul friends.’” —Lara Lillibridge, author of Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home
“Rebecca Fish Ewan’s By the Forces of Gravity is a visually and emotionally compelling coming-of-age memoir. Her inventive prose and picture narrative recreates the tumultuous counter-culture movement in Berkeley, California, capturing the intricate, psychedelic zeitgeist of the 1970s. Together, the drawings and text weave an intimate story of a young girl finding her soulmate and mentor as they search for cosmic consciousness. This free-verse-comic takes us on an epic trip of alternative lifestyles, sex, drugs, rock-and-roll, loss and ultimately redemption.”—Chip Sullivan, author of Cartooning the Landscape
“Full of the raw honesty and complicated tangles of a young girl navigating the lost and found of adolescence friendship and the journey toward selfhood in 1970s Berkeley—the drawings as necessary and revealing as the doodles in the margins of her lessons.” —Tyler Cohen, author of Primahood: Magenta
“Reminiscent at turns of both Kurt Vonnegut and Judy Blume, this graphic memoir wrestles with the very universal stuff that only the immutable and mutable laws of physics and girl-power can explain. Whether resisting inertia or singularity, Fish Ewan’s imaginative orbit is undeniable. By the Forces of Gravity is a wrenching, delightful freefall—full of wry humor, love, and the sort of wisdom so compacted and understated it could have been forged only in the space-time magic of this author’s own luminous vision.”—Alexis Paige, author of Not a Place on Any Map
“Girlhood friendship is the strongest force in the universe in this stirring memoir of 1970s Berkeley. Adrift in an ocean of drugs, parties, and hands-off parenting, twelve-year-old Becky Fish is in need of a life raft. Enter Luna, a warmhearted girl who thinks everything is “super fine”—including the girl she rechristens Becky Star Fish. Together, the two “soul friends” wend their wild way through peyote-powered trips to the desert, discussions of metaphysics, and more than a few crushes. But the pleasures of their hedonistic adolescence do not come without a cost—one that neither of them is ready to pay. Though it is, as the title page states, primarily about “loving Luna,” Fish’s memoir is also an unflinching portrait of the decay of hippie ideals. Becky might feel enlightened, but the reality is that she lives off popcorn, alcohol, and marijuana and spends much of her time fending off the sexual predations of older men. Luna truly shines against this seamy backdrop, as brightly as the moon she names herself for. The tenderness she prompts in Fish infuses every densely-inked illustration of this story. This is a paean to love—the love Becky and Luna have for each other, the love Luna has for the world, and ultimately, the love that leads one lost, lonely teenage girl to her future.” Publishers Weekly
From Hippocampus: “Rebecca Fish Ewan’s illustrated coming-of-age memoir By the Forces of Gravity is told through drawings and free verse. Set in early-1970s Berkeley, California, Rebecca’s story reflects on a childhood friendship cut short by tragedy. In an era of laissez-faire parenting, Rebecca drops out of elementary school and takes up residence in a kids commune—no parents allowed!—and we follow her, bestie Luna, and their hippie cohorts as they search for love, acceptance, and cosmic truths. Full of adventure and heartache, By the Forces of Gravity promises to pull you in.”
A Land Between (Johns Hopkins University Press) is a work of creative nonfiction that explores the natural and cultural history of the Owens Valley in California. It received a national ASLA award.
From the back jacket: “A Land Between explores the central idea of how people’s preconceptions and perceptions of a place—in this case, Owens Valley—influence their interventions on the land. Rebecca Fish Ewan draws on primary sources, oral histories, and conversations; her gentle and poetic essays, illustrated with historical images and her own photographs of the region, provide a complex, multifaceted perspective on the land, the history, and the people of the Owens Valley.”
I’ve also launched zines under my micro publishing imprint, Plankton Press.
My obsession is mixed-media/hybrid creative nonfiction, but I’ve also written a series of Young Adult novels based on the belief that love is definitely within reach if one can time travel to an alternate reality and steer clear of pie. So… hopeful. These stories are set in the San Francisco Bay Area, Sedona, Arizona, and Phoenix between 1961 and 2050. An excerpt from the third manuscript, working title Hold My Hand, was published in the 25th anniversary issue (Fall/Winter 2013) of IT Post.
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Just a note to say I love your website and your work.
Thanks, Naomi! I need to check on it more regularly 🙂