In this week’s Illustrated PEN, guest editor MariNaomi features a piece by Ebin Lee, excerpted from A Wretch Like Me: Sad/Black/Ugly/Queer (October 2015, Sparkplug Books).

MariNaomi writes: “The contents of Ebin Lee’s book hit me at such a visceral level. The dizzying brush strokes, the body horror, and the sheer beauty of it all took my breath away. Lee is definitely a creator to keep an eye on. This is an important book by an important (though sadly, soon-to-be-extinct) publisher.”

Ebin Lee is an artist, illustrator, and designer based in Portland, Oregon.

The Illustrated PEN is a weekly online series that aspires to be at the intersection of literature, journalism, and visual storytelling, where images and words come together in an ever-emerging and essential creative form. We’ll feature fiction and nonfiction graphic narratives, comics journalism and illustrated reportage, stories of social justice and personal stories that can’t be told through words alone.