'Meet Tava, a twenty-four-year-old medical student in a deep depression. Alice, her friend and housemate, is trying to figure out how to support her. Time unravels, leaving both women bewildered at the emotional landscapes that have opened before them.
'Eyes Too Dry started out as a series of private conversations between the authors by way of a comic-in-correspondence. Their decision to make this work public was fuelled by their struggle to find stories and artwork that spoke to their experiences of encountering depression, suicidal ideation and emotional weight. In a world that tells us to “keep calm and carry on” they are offering a narrative that is vulnerable, honest and uncertain. They hope to add new ways to talk about, visualise and relate to these complex emotions.' (Publication summary)
'In her 2015 Sydney Review of Books article ‘What the essayist spills’, Maria Tumarkin draws a clear distinction between ‘confessor’ and ‘essayist’. The first is a writer who spills everything for an audience primed to receive and ‘learn’ from it. The latter sees their material as an entry to wider discussions; ‘smashing the bottom from underneath the author’s experiences’ and steering them into a place where the experiences are simply given space to breathe in an approach driven by curiosity.' (Introduction)
'Alice Chipkin and Jessica Tavassoli’s graphic memoir takes an insightful look at big issues such as clinical depression and sexuality – but at its heart it’s also just an intimate portrait of long-time friends.'
'Alice Chipkin and Jessica Tavassoli’s graphic memoir takes an insightful look at big issues such as clinical depression and sexuality – but at its heart it’s also just an intimate portrait of long-time friends.'
'In her 2015 Sydney Review of Books article ‘What the essayist spills’, Maria Tumarkin draws a clear distinction between ‘confessor’ and ‘essayist’. The first is a writer who spills everything for an audience primed to receive and ‘learn’ from it. The latter sees their material as an entry to wider discussions; ‘smashing the bottom from underneath the author’s experiences’ and steering them into a place where the experiences are simply given space to breathe in an approach driven by curiosity.' (Introduction)