Liz Montague’s full circle moment: a featured author for CHS One Book One School.
Every summer, the students at Cherokee have to read one book from choices selected by the school as a part of the One Book One School Program. The summer of 2023 was no different, but the author of one of the selections rang a bell to many Cherokee teachers. The author of “Maybe An Artist” was Liz Montague, from the class of 2014.
“Maybe an Artist” is a graphic memoir that depicts Montague’s life from elementary school to college. The book portrays her struggle to figure out what she wanted to do as a career, dealing with other people’s expectations about her, growing up as a person of color in Marlton, having to juggle a job and numerous after-school activities (one of which was the Cherokee Scout!) Throughout the book, she talks about her experiences at Cherokee and Demasi Middle School, using fake names for the schools.
“It’s like a safety thing we have to do,” Montague stated. “At the time there was a lot of violence happening at schools… so it was just [an] industry practice, now if it’s a real school don’t say the real name… It wasn’t a dig at Cherokee I promise!”
Despite her struggle in picking a career path depicted in the book, Montague became a graphic designer, and eventually a cartoonist for “The New Yorker.” This occurred after she noticed that the cartoon columns in “The New Yorker” were only created by white artists and all had the same perspective. She emailed them to inform them of this and asked them to have a more diverse representation. Although she was not expecting an email back, they responded.
In their response, they asked if she had any recommendations of cartoonists that fit her description. She responded, “Yeah, me,” The rest was history for Montague.
Since then she has worked on multiple books, a Google Doodle, and created illustrations for President Biden’s “Your Vote Matters” campaign. However, she finds “Maybe an Artist” the most rewarding project she has done so far in her career.
“I’m not… an especially forthcoming person… I would not have chosen to do a memoir at all… it’s not something I would have thought myself capable of if I hadn’t actually done it. So I guess it was very surprising for me to ever have been able to complete it, be willing to put it out in the world, be willing to talk about myself that in-depthly.”
Writing this book was not just a step outside of her comfort zone mentally, the process was physically different than her other projects. Prior to her book, she stated that she “had a column in Washington City paper and I was doing the New Yorker cartoons, and…I would submit something by 7 a.m. and it would be published by 12 p.m. that same day, but for books [it’s] a three-year process.” Once she completed the first book she became used to the delayed gratification, but it was a difficult adjustment.
Montague learned that her book would be featured in her alma mater’s One Book One School program through an Instagram Direct Message from Mrs. Castor, an English teacher at Cherokee. “It was super meta to have that happen to me because I remember the One Book One School things.” She said. “It was super weird but super cool, and I was honored!”
Since she had these connections within the school, she was invited to come in to talk to select English classes about her book. During the event, she answered questions about her book, the process of creating it, and what it is like being a former student and athlete. “It’s just so intimidating, all the teachers beforehand told me… ‘[the students] just sit there and blink at you.’ And that is exactly what everyone does,” she says, “It’s very intimidating to be a teacher, they are very brave.”
Despite that feeling, Montague is glad she did it and appreciates the support she got from her former teachers and administrators. She felt that this event closed a chapter in her life. “It feels very full circle.”
Safeena Bhimani, a student who attended this event, commented how she “enjoyed it a lot… I learned that there are lots of ways to find your passion in life, but also different ways to find something you love while making a living and being the person you want to be.” Bhimani recommends similar events be held for students in the future because “even if you don’t know someone, or it’s not your cup of tea, you could be surprised by what you experience. I wasn’t expecting much from this event, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out more about Liz Montague and the story of her life, and was greatly interested in what she had to say.”
For students looking for more of Liz Montague’s work, she has a handful of projects coming up. She has three book series with Scholastic Books, two of which are coming out this year. She is also publishing another graphic novel with Random House that will come out in 2025. To find out more about her work, you can visit her website https://lizatlarge.org/, or follow her Instagram @lizatlarge.
