“There’s always that hope”: an interview with Terri Libenson

ABSTRACTIn Summer 2023, we sat down with Terri Libenson, New York Times bestselling author of The Pajama Diaries and the Emmie and Friends series. She shared with us a bit about her early interest in comics, her journey into comics-making, and the difference in her readers as a comic strip creator, and a middle-grade cartoonist. Together we think about what it is about the form that lends itself so well to processing traumatic experiences in a way that can be both creative and therapeutic. We also discussed her process, what she’s currently reading, and we hear a little about her upcoming work and what she still wants to do in her series.KEYWORDS: Girlsmiddle-gradetherapypsychologythought bubble Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1. For more about PJ Library, see pjlibrary.org.2. James Ellis, ‘How J.K. Rowling Created Harry Potter,’ in Newsweek Special Edition, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, October 16, Citation2016, https://www.newsweek.com/how-jk-rowling-created-harry-potter-5100423. Austen played the same game when she attended an exhibition of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds at the Royal Academy at Somerset House. ‘Mrs. Darcy’ once again proved elusive. A disappointed Austen told Cassandra that ‘I can only imagine that Mr D. prizes any Picture of her too much to like it should it be exposed to the public eye.’ Darcy, she believed, would regard Elizabeth with a mixture of ‘Love, Pride & Delicacy.’ Meredith Hindley, ‘The Mysterious Miss Austen,’ Humanities 34, no. 1 (Citation2013), https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/januaryfebruary/feature/the-mysterious-miss-austen4. See Vera J. Camden, ‘The thought bubble and its vicissitudes in contemporary comics,’ American Imago 77, no. 3 (Citation2020): 603–638.5. Hillary Chute and Patrick Jagoda, eds., ‘Comics & Media,’ Critical Inquiry 40, no. 3 (Citation2014).6. Camden, Vera J., and Valentino L. Zullo. “‘I don’t know how to process experiences unless I put them into comics’: an interview with Raina Telgemeier.” Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics (Citation2023): 1-22.