Graphic Memoir of ‘Three Generations of Chinese Women’ Wins Pulitzer
By Romen Basu Borsellino | 08 May, 2025

First time author Tessa Hulls won a Pulitzer Prize for her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts. At least five AAPI journalists also took home the prestigious award.

A cartoon about ghosts might not seem like the most conventional way to tell the story of a woman and her daughter’s daring escape from Communist China in the 1950s, but that didn’t seem to bother the Pulitzer Prize committee. 

On Monday Tessa Hulls, the daughter and granddaughter of those refugees, took home the most prestigious literary award in the US. Hulls, a first time author, received the Pulitzer Prize for Memoir or Autobiography for her graphic memoir Feeding Ghosts.

Per the Pulitzer Committee, Hulls’ book is “An affecting work of literary art and discovery whose illustrations bring to life three generations of Chinese women — the author, her mother and grandmother, and the experience of trauma handed down with family histories.”

Hulls began working on the book a decade ago — seven years before the Pulitzer’s Memoir or Autobiography category even existed. In her own words, that time required learning history, learning some Chinese, and learning to draw comics. 

Hull’s grandmother Su Yi was herself a bestselling author in China before escaping to Hong Kong. Hulls set out to use her grandmother’s writing as a blueprint for telling her family story, but came to realize that much of it was fabricated. Hulls attributes this to the trauma and ensuing mental breakdown her grandmother experienced from the turmoil she lived through in China.

Over the course of writing the book, Hulls took two trips to China and Hong Kong with her mother, who helped translate. The travel was hardly an inconvenience for Hulls, who lives her life as a nomad. Per her own website, Hulls’ “restlessness has joyously dragged her across all seven continents.” She is currently living in Juneau, Alaska and working in the state capitol dining hall where, in addition to Feeding Ghosts, she is feeding lawmakers. 

The AAPI community had plenty to celebrate beyond Hulls’ victory. The following Asian Americans also won Pulitzers on Monday, all for various achievements in journalism:

Public Service: Kavita Surana

Explanatory Reporting: Azam Ahmed

Local Reporting: Alissa Zhu

Commentary: Mosab Abu Toha

Editorial Writing: Raj Mankad