Isabel Greenberg


Isabel Greenberg is an award-winning British graphic novelist and illustrator.
Her first book, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, was published in 2013 by Jonathan Cape in the UK, Little Brown in the US and Random House in Canada.

Career

Greenberg has been published in The Guardian, The Observer, The New York Times and Nobrow Press.
In 2013, she was one of 20 leading graphic designers and illustrators to feature in the Memory Palace exhibition at the V & A, sponsored by Sky Arts. An original piece of fiction by Hari Kunzru was transformed into a "walk-in graphic novel".
In 2014, she was a select at Pick Me Up at Somerset House.
She has worked with Chatham Dockyard, Tyntesfield House and The Museum of Marco Polo.

The Observer/Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize

Greenberg first entered the prize in 2009, when she came second.
She entered again in 2011 and won with Love in a Very Cold Climate, a love story about a Nord, a north-pole dweller, and a Suit, a south-pole dweller, who can never touch.

Graphic novels

Greenberg's first graphic novel, The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, is a series of interlinking stories set in Early Earth, where her prize-winning short story was also set. Rachel Cooke, reviewing her book in The Guardian, said "her wonderful book already feels like a classic" and compared her to Tove Jansson. It has been translated into German, Spanish, French and Polish.
In 2016, Greenberg released her second graphic novel, The One Hundred Nights of Hero.
This was followed by 2020's Glass Town, about the paracosm of the Brontë siblings.

Personal life

Greenberg attended Brighton School of Art, studying illustration.
Greenberg currently lives in London, England.