Erin Williams

Erin Williams is an American author, illustrator, cartoonist, and researcher. She is known for her graphic narratives, which include Commute. Her work covers chronic pain and illness, alcoholism, sexual assault, motherhood, and being a woman in America.
==Career==
Williams earned a B.A. from New York University and is currently working on a MFA at Hunter College. Williams is a lecturer at the Parsons School of Design at The New School. 
Williams' 2019 book, Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame, is a graphic memoir. Through the course of her daily commute, Williams illustrates the everyday details of her morning routine, such as putting on makeup, making tea, and waiting at the train station while the book's narrative simultaneously addresses the ways in which her identity as a woman intersects with both the commute and her past trauma. Specifically, the memoir addresses her struggle with alcoholism and sexual assaults, illustrating how trauma becomes shame through the narrative of a single day's commute to and from work. Williams notes the role that shame plays in preventing women from sharing their stories about rape, describing the banality and commonality of sexual assault. Commute was published by Abrams ComicArt, an imprint of Abrams Books and received starred reviews. 
Reviews of Commute describe it as a story that reflects the #MeToo era in American society and culture a story that is personal and timely given the cultural shift of the #MeToo era. The Kenyon Review describes Commute's publication as speaking to the "massive cultural shift in the wake of #MeToo, as women continue to share stories that for so long went unspoken." Multiple reviews of Williams' graphic memoir note that this book begins a needed uncomfortable conversation as sexual assault is common to one in six women.
Additionally, reviews of Commute describe the memoir as "a necessary addition to the medium of graphic narrative, long dominated by men." Commute adds to a small but growing genre of graphic memoirs authored by women that focus on diving into vulnerable aspects of their lives. This genre includes work by cartoonists Ellen Forney, Teresa Wong, and Lucy Knisley. Commute contributes to diversifying the medium of graphic narratives, highlighting an all-too-common story experienced by women. 
Williams' book What's Wrong Personal Histories of Chronic Pain and Bad Medicine is a collection of illustrated personal histories of chronic illness and pain. In it, she details the conditions of four people from diverse backgrounds, as well as her own chronic illness. Specifically, Williams describes how the American medical system fails these individuals, illustrating how individuals experiencing chronic pain and chronic illness struggle to navigate a system that leaves them behind. It was published by Abram Comics Art, an imprint of Abrams Books. 
She also wrote and illustrated the Big Activity Book series with Jordan Reid. These books include The Big Activity Book for Anxious People, The Big Fat Activity Book for Pregnant People, The Big Activity Book for Divorced People, and The Big Activity Book for Digital Detox, all published by Penguin RandomHouse.
==Awards==
Book Riot, The A.V. Club, and The Strand named Commute a Best Book of 2019. It was long-listed for the 2019 Believer Book Award for Nonfiction.
In October 2023, Williams was the recipient of a Koyama Provides grant for her comics work.
==Selected Works==
* What's Wrong? Personal Histories of Chronic Pain and Bad Medicine, 2024, published by Abrams Comics Art
* How to take care, with Kate Novotny, 2022, published by Penguin RandomHouse
* Our Whispering Wombs, illustrations, 2022, published in the Virgina Quarterly Review
* "Plague as Disciplinary Project: COVID in Chicago", 2021, published in Synapsis
* "Love Sick: An artist researches one form of illness in the time of another", 2020, published in the MoMA magazine
* "Dust and Doubt", 2020, published in The Believer
* Commute: An Illustrated Memoir of Female Shame, 2019, published by Abrams Comics Art
Category:American authors
Category:Illustrators
Category:Cartoonists
Category:Researchers
Category:American people