In this week’s special edition of Illustrated PEN, Guest Editor Meg Lemke presents “Lines Drawn”—a series of illustrations, by parents and teachers, on caring for children in an era of continued school shootings. View the full series and Lemke’s introduction here, and learn more about the young activists against gun violence who will receive this year’s PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award here.


Adam Bessie is a community college English professor in the San Francisco Bay Area. He writes cartoons and non-fiction comics in collaboration with artists that have appeared in national publications, including The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe and Truthout.

Marc Parenteau is a California-based cartoonist. His work has been featured by The Atlantic, Vox, and Splinter media among others. He is the Visual Editor for the ethnoGRAPHIC series at University of Toronto Press.