Writer/artist Lynn Von Sien (she/her/hers) is an Arrowhead Regional Arts Council and Minnesota State Arts Board grant recipient. Her full length debut graphic memoir, Snow Emergency Route - a tragicomic memoir, is being published by The Minnesota Historical Society Press on July 20, 2027. She’s had nonfiction comics published in Artpolice, The Nib, The Nemadji Review and many SAW anthologies.
Lynn was born and relinquished at the Salvation Army Booth Memorial Hospital in St. Paul in 1962, and was adopted one month later. Her tragicomic work is informed by the complexity of life as an adopted person. A University of Minnesota alum (Design ’87), Lynn worked primarily as a museum worker and graphic designer in the decades that followed. After retiring to caregive her parents for seven years, she committed to working full time on her art. She resides in northern Minnesota with her husband, and spoiled only cat Bunty.
Notes from Lynn:
Photo/Dan Corrigan
“Thus, sped by currents of curiosity afloat the swift river of rumor do secrets sail to strange ports.”
― Will Eisner
I myself am a secret that sailed to strange ports. #adoptee
Happy news! Snow Emergency Route - a tragicomic memoir will be published by The Minnesota Historical Society Press on July 20, 2027! The cover will be different, but for posterity the thumbnail here shows the version that made its debut at The Small Press Expo in a very limited artist-produced edition. The book tells the story of caregiving my terminally ill, martini-swilling adoptive mom, with flashbacks galore. I workshopped it with Tom Hart and he gave it this very nice blurb:
"A gorgeous masterpiece of multi-layered grief. Sad, smart, and ultimately uplifting."
- Tom Hart, #1 New York Times bestselling graphic memoirist, author of Rosalie Lightning.
Thanks to the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council for the grant supporting this work!
Please note: I no longer share my art on this website. Please visit my Instagram if you'd like an eyeful!
Available now:
Drawing Breath: Early Memoir Drawings
The drawings in this book appeared originally as part of the now out-of-print rarity Whatever You Wish To Keep. Inspired by the graphic novels of Frans Masereel and Lynd Ward, my early work is almost wordless. The language I explored was the visual, sacred inner world of personal memory. Drawing Breath is a meditation on joy, sorrow, abandon, and quietude; on innocence lost and found. It’s me as a young artist seeking to understand the nature of my lived moments.