This month on the Deerfield Public Library Podcast, we are very happy to welcome writer and artist Annah Feinberg to talk about her hilarious and moving debut full-length graphic novel, Goodbye, Dolly! Narrated from beyond the grave by Dolly, the famous cloned sheep born in 1996, Goodbye, Dolly! tells the story of her six disaffected children (or as Annah calls them, “nepo lambs”) as they search the Scottish countryside for their identity after their mother’s death.
Annah Feinberg has written many comics and humor pieces for publications like The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Bon Appétit, and Awry, which often skewer the indignities of life (“The Utter Humiliation of Being a Body”) and a Millennial combination of high self-regard and economic precarity (“Millennials Are the First Generation in History to Inspire Think Pieces About Millennials”). We discuss how these themes also shine through in the very anxious sheep of Goodbye, Dolly! You’ll also hear how Feinberg’s unique art style, which features stock image backgrounds, brilliantly inhabits the exhausted detritus of our culture.
Feinberg also grew up here in Deerfield, and we are thrilled we get to celebrate her work as her hometown library! Listen for a fun—and funny—conversation about existential crises through the perhaps unlikely characters of cartoon sheep.
Annah Feinberg writes and draws, often at the very same time. Her previous comics and humor writing have been featured in The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Bon Appétit, Awry, Mutha Magazine, The Hairpin, the collection Notes from the Bathroom Line, and in her zines The Shapelies, Food Source, and Me Myselves And. Annah has developed adult animated shows for Showtime and AMC, wrote and produced short films Fetus Monster and The Workplace, and is currently developing another adult animated show, writing two live-action features and working on another graphic novel. Formerly a playwright, dramaturg, and Hollywood assistant, Annah has an MFA in Dramaturgy from Columbia University and was a founding member of theater activist group The Kilroys. Before that, she was a child who wrote and drew, often at the very same time.
You can check out Goodbye, Dolly! and other titles by Annah Feinberg here in our Podcast Collection, featuring books and other materials by past guests of the show. Find out more about Annah at her website or on her Instagram @annahfeinberg.
We hope you enjoy our 69th interview episode! Each month (or so), we release an episode featuring a conversation with an author, artist, or other notable guests from Chicagoland or around the world. Learn more about the podcast on our podcast page. You can listen to all of our episodes in the player below or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments and feedback—please send to podcast@deerfieldlibrary.org.
You can listen to all of our episodes in the player below.
