UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Beth Hetland, 2025 winner of the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year, will receive the award on Friday, Oct. 24, for her book, “Tender," published by Fantagraphics.
The award presentation ceremony and author talk begins at 4 p.m. in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on Penn State’s University Park campus. A book signing will follow the talk.
Hetland’s talk will include a visual presentation and discussion of her 2024 graphic novel, described by a jury member as a work wherein “the elements of body horror echo the themes of how the images of a perfect life in one's dreams or social media feeds are often a facade, hiding deeper horrors within us.”
The Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year is sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries and administered by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress. It is presented annually to the best graphic novel, fiction or nonfiction, published in the previous calendar year by a living U.S. or Canadian citizen or resident.
The jury also awarded two honor books: “The Field” by Dave Lapp, published by Conundrum Press; and Boum’s “The Jellyfish,” published by Pow Pow Press.
The award’s selection jury includes representatives from various Penn State academic departments who use the graphic novel in their teaching or research, as well as representatives with graphic-novel expertise from the broader United States graphic novel community.
Established in 2011, the Lynd Ward Prize honors Ward’s formative influence in the development of the graphic novel and celebrates the gift of an extensive collection of Ward’s wood engravings, original book illustrations and other graphic art donated to the Penn State University Libraries by his daughters Robin Ward Savage and Nanda Weedon Ward. Recently, the University Libraries digitized the collection, titled Lynd Ward Wood Engravings and Other Graphic Art, circa 1920-1975, and made it available online.
Ward, creator of the first American wordless novel, “God’s Man,” produced it and five additional groundbreaking wordless novels between 1929 and 1937 — “Madman’s Drum,” “Wild Pilgrimage,” “Prelude to a Million Years,” “Songs without Words” and “Vertigo.” They have been re-issued by the Library of America in a two-volume boxed set titled “Lynd Ward: Six Novels in Woodcuts,” the first time the nonprofit publisher has included a graphic novelist in its award-winning series.
The Penn State University Libraries, the Eberly Family Special Collections Library, the College of Arts and Architecture, the College of the Liberal Arts, the English Department in the College of the Liberal Arts, and the Graphic Design Department in the College of Arts and Architecture, are co-sponsors of this award.
For more information about the selection criteria and how to submit books for consideration for the 2026 Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize, contact Ellysa Stern Cahoy at pacftb@psu.edu, or visit the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s website.
For more information about the Lynd Ward Prize for Graphic Novel of the Year, including questions regarding physical access and special accommodations at the ceremony, contact Ellysa Stern Cahoy at pacftb@psu.edu.