By Andrew Chang ’26

Gene Luen Yang, a world-renowned cartoonist and teacher, will give the Jacobs Residency Lecture in the Burgin Center for the Arts’ Simon Theatre on Monday, December 9. 

Growing up with a passion for storytelling, Yang began creating comics and graphic novels in the fifth grade. In 2006, his book American Born Chinese was published by First Second Books. It became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. The book also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album–New. American Born Chinese was also featured in Mercersburg Academy’s Summer Reading Challenge 2024. 

In 2013, First Second Books released Boxers & Saints, Yang’s two-volume graphic novel about the Boxer Rebellion. This work was also nominated for a National Book Award and won the L.A. Times Book Prize. Beyond his own creations, Yang has contributed to other famous comics, including Dark Horse Comics’ continuation of Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender and DC Comics’ Superman. In addition to his cartooning, he teaches creative writing at Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults alongside renowned authors like Anne Ursu, Gary Schmidt, Laura Ruby, and Matt de la Peña. In January 2016, he was appointed the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress, Every Child A Reader, and the Children’s Book Council.

The Jacobs Residency Lecture is endowed in memory of John Alfred Morefield, the father of John Morefield ’52 and Fred Morefield ’53, in recognition of Wilmarth I. Jacobs, the school’s former assistant headmaster and director of admission (1915 to 1962), who personified a strong quality of non-elitism.