Graphic Mundi, the recently launched graphic novel imprint of Penn State University Press, is the new home for Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 and Menopause: A Comic Treatment, both by Graphic Medicine luminary MK Czerwiec. The Graphic Mundi edition of Taking Turns, with a new cover and updated foreword by Czerwiec, and the new edition of the Eisner-winning anthology Menopause will both be released in November. Both titles will be distributed exclusively by Diamond Comic Distributors.
Taking Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371, originally published as part of Penn State University Press’s Graphic Medicine series in 2017, is a firsthand account of caregiving in Illinois Masonic Medical Center’s HIV/AIDS Care Unit 371 in the 1990s—a pivotal time in the history of AIDS. It received rave reviews in Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, The Advocate, and other publications and was cited by Rebecca Makkai as source material for The Great Believers, her award-winning novel. Menopause: A Comic Treatment, published in 2020, was awarded the 2021 Will Eisner Comic Industry Award for Best Anthology, and Mimi Pond’s “When the Menopausal 
Carnival Comes to Town,” one of the comics contained in the anthology, was awarded Best Short Story. It was also named a Best Graphic Novel of 2020 by the New York Times, whose columnist Hillary Chute called it “eclectic and often humorous,” and listed among the 2020 Top Ten Best Graphic Novels for Adults by Booklist.
Penn State University Press launched the Graphic Mundi imprint in February 2021 and in June 2021 signed an agreement with Diamond Comic Distributors to be the exclusive distributor of the imprint to comic book specialty markets in North America. Diamond was also awarded the rights to exclusively distribute Graphic Mundi titles to the North American book market under the banner of Diamond Book Distributors.
Additional Fall 2021 releases from Graphic Mundi are Hakim’s Odyssey, Book 1: From Syria to Turkey by Fabien Toulmé (November); A Chance by Cristina Durán and Miguel Giner Bou (November); Iranian Love Stories by Jane Deuxard and Deloupy (December); and BrainComix by Jean-François Marmion and Monsieur B (December). Learn more at https://www.graphicmundi.org/
About MK Czerwiec:
MK Czerwiec is a nurse, cartoonist, educator, and cofounder of the field of Graphic Medicine. She regularly teaches at Northwestern University’s Feinberg Medical School and the University of Chicago and has served as a Senior Fellow of the George Washington School of Nursing Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement. She is available for print and broadcast interviews; contact Cate Fricke at crf16@psu.edu to schedule, or to request a review copy of these or any Graphic Mundi titles.
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