Snow Emergency Route
an adoptee graphic memoir
Snow Emergency Route is at the printer and making its debut at The Small Press Expo!
Elevator pitch: Colorful midcentury coming-of-age misadventures are folded into the ticking clock of terminal cancer in this tragicomic memoir. After moving back to the neighborhood of her youth with two cats and a helpful fiancé in tow, Lynn Von Sien navigates her elderly mother’s decline. A deep dive into a complex adoptive mother/daughter relationship, teeming with wisdom and emotional truth.
What my peers are saying:
"A gorgeous masterpiece of multi-layered grief. Sad, smart, and ultimately uplifting."
- Tom Hart, #1 New York Times bestselling graphic memoirist, author of Rosalie Lightning.
“How does the experience of relinquishment influence one’s decisions or abilities to navigate harmful family relationships? Is making the choice to stay in challenging relationships and work through conflict an act of love? Being engrossed in Snow Emergency Route felt like I was in a long conversation with a fellow adoptee that I have known for decades. Von Sien’s visual and oral precision, clarity of expression, and unabashed self reflection captivated me throughout her deeply emotional journey of familial reckoning.”
- Mike Hoyt, author of Hanabata Days
“Lynn has created a graphic memoir that will resonate deeply with anyone who has experienced adoption, but also with those who appreciate honest expressions of emotional truths. A wonderful example of someone working within a medium they were born to express themselves in. Moving, intelligent, and elegant.”
- Joel Orff, author of Twice Shy, Thunderhead Underground Falls, Waterwise, and Strum And Drang: Great Moments In Rock ‘N’ Roll
This activity is made possible in part by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Arrowhead Regional Arts Council, thanks to appropriations from the Minnesota State Legislature's general and arts and cultural heritage funds.
Swing or Symphony
an adoptee graphic memoir
Swing or Symphony is a tragicomic graphic memoir about caregiving my terminally ill adoptive father. An Italian-American and great lover of music, he lived to be 99. I unpack our history in flashbacks, including visits to his hometown of Newark, New Jersey. This work is another deep dive into how my adoption affected me psychologically. Disconnecting and connecting with my dad continually over time was part of that.
The rough first draft is complete at 418 pages, thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board grant that supported this work. I plan to start the editing and coloring work over the winter of 2025/26.
Lynn Von Sien is a fiscal year 2023 recipient of a Creative Support for Individuals grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
