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Maia Kobabe (b. 1989) is a nonbinary, queer author and illustrator from the Bay Area, California, who uses e/em/eir pronouns. Kobabe, who is dyslexic and did not read until age 11, received an MFA in Comics from the California College of the Arts in San Francisco. Before working freelance full-time, e worked for over ten years in libraries. Eir work is heavily influenced by fairy tales, homesickness, anti-fascism, sexuality, and the search for identity.  Kobabe’s graphic nonfiction work attracted attention after being featured in Bay Area publications including The Nib, an online comics publication that operated from 2013 until closing in 2023.

Kobabe’s full length graphic memoir, Gender Queer: A Memoir, was published in May 2019. It was written and drawn by Maia Kobabe and colorfully illustrated by eir sister Phoebe. The work’s impact can be gauged by both the praise and the condemnations it has received. Popular with readers and publishing award committees, it won the 2020 American Library Association’s Alex Award and was a finalist for the Stonewall Book Award. But it has also drawn the wrath of book banners. According to PEN America, it was the banned in 41 school districts across the United States during the 2021-22 school year, making it the most banned book that year.

Kobabe is currently working with friend and fellow California cartoonist Lucky Srikumar on a fiction project for the publisher Scholastic for middle-school readers. This new work, called Sacchi’s Stories, will—like Gender Queer—deal with a character dealing with gender, identity, and sexuality. It is scheduled to be published in 2025.

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