Do You Remember Like I Do?
Mentor: Alison Williams
Do You Remember Like I Do? is a graphic novel about living despite trauma after the experience of intimate partner violence and sexual assault. Informed from my own experience of trauma, this story is a fictional exploration of how one slowly, and maybe sometimes shakily, transitions through different phases of healing and growth. It is an honest depiction of life after abuse, and the challenging process of rediscovering, recreating, and reimagining identity that is given shape by the choices we make to heal. The balance between illustration and narrative offered through a graphic novel creates space for the complex and bittersweet experience of healing from traumatic events, and the weaving together of illustrations, poems and storyline, breathe life into a softly spoken story of living in a post-trauma state. With the careful encouragement of space and attention, this story offers one of many ways to navigate through trauma and healing, and reminds the reader that they are not alone. This graphic novel is not a story of hope. It is a story of reality. It is a story that proclaims that stories like these matter, that they have always mattered.
Read an Excerpt from Brea’s Graphic Novel Bittersweet
