I’m excited to welcome Cameron Mukwa to Cynsations! I’ve always thought ribbon skirts would make a perfect graphic novel topic and was thrilled when this one hit my radar. The Ribbon Skirt (Scholastic, 2024) is about a Two Spirit kid who wants to create a ribbon skirt of their own for an upcoming powwow. The graphic novel is a nominee for the 36th Annual GLAAD Media Awards and received four starred reviews.

Ten-year-old Anang wants to make a ribbon skirt, a piece of clothing typically worn by girls in the Anishinaabe tradition, for an upcoming powwow. Anang is Two-Spirit and nonbinary and doesn’t know what others will think of them wearing a ribbon skirt, but they’re determined to follow their heart’s desire. Anang sets off to gather the materials needed to make the skirt and turns to those around them — their family, their human and turtle friends, the crows, and even the lake itself — for help. And maybe they’ll even find a new confidence within themself along the way.

What is the heart of The Ribbon Skirt?

The Ribbon Skirt is about being proud of your identity, even when your friends may not understand it.

Anang does not struggle with gender identity—in fact, I’d say it’s other people around them that are struggling with it. As a Two Spirit person, Anang knows who they are and how they want to present themselves to the world. I wanted to capture an exuberance in the character of Anang, a joy in being one’s self that cannot be snuffed out by negativity in their day-to-day lives.

After all, if our joy wasn’t so powerful, those with closed minds wouldn’t work so hard to take it away from us.

Where did the idea come from?

I was inspired by other Two-Spirit people in my community, and our shared resilience in the face of misunderstanding and oppression. We were, and continue to be, incredibly important individuals in our nations.

With this book, I wanted to make space for Two Spirit kids who do not feel supported in their lives, whether by friends or relatives, and show that the spirits and ancestors support us, even when no one else seems to. A better world is possible, and we are building it every day.

Can you talk about how the project went from concept to complete? Did you query it? What was the submission process like?

The first step was coming up with a story hook. What did Anang want? Once I thought hard about who my character was, writing a short blurb on the story itself came rather naturally.

When my agent and I began working together, we put a lot of effort into writing up a summarized version of the book, chapter by chapter.

I created character art and several pages of the graphic novel for my pitch, and after a lot of editing, my agent sent it off! This was a very scary time for me, but I was quite lucky that we received offers quickly.

After a little back and forth, we signed with Scholastic, and the rest is history!

How did you find your agent?

I was very lucky to come across #DVpit back in the ye olde days of Twitter (when it was still called Twitter). That was a pitching event on the platform meant to connect marginalized authors with agents, and eventually, get their books published.

I got some interest in my pitch for a graphic novel through the event, and connected with several agents, one of which was Nicole Geiger, who is my agent today. This event still exists, I believe, and is held over the Discord messaging application. I can’t thank the folks behind DVpit enough, just knowing that people were interested in the stories I wanted to tell was incredible.

For anyone who wants to find an agent without a pitch event, there are multiple sites meant to list illustration and graphic novel agents that I suggest looking through.

What drew you to illustration as an art medium?

Well, I can’t say I was ever not drawing, really. I was one of those kids in school that was drawing in the margins of my homework (and sometimes drawing instead of doing homework), so drawing was always something I really enjoyed.

It took many years to start seeing illustration as something I really was good at, though! I’ve suffered from a lot of self-doubt over the years, and though I found solace in the worlds I could create on paper, learning to believe that other people believed in the work I did was what it took to see this as a real career path.

For anyone else who has felt the same, just remember that there is no failing at art. You learn and grow, that’s all. The world of illustration needs your voice!

Where and when do you draw? Why does that time/space work for you?

This is a tricky question because it constantly changes.

If you’d asked me this during the production of my graphic novel, I’d have said strictly from 10 am – 5 pm, at my desk, and not a minute over. I find that when I have a large amount of production work to get through, I need to do all my work in the morning, because my energy runs out later into the day.

However, I’ve been trying to be a little less strict with myself lately. I’ve been battling depression, which means that some days I have much more energy for work than others. I find that a bit more leniency means that on days where I don’t want to do anything, I can get something done, and on days where I have a lot of energy, I can get even more done.

So, it’s a bit of a balancing act, and I’m not sure I’ve perfected it yet. My only piece of advice here is, doing one page is better than doing no pages.

What is your favorite panel in The Ribbon Skirt? Why?

Near the end of The Ribbon Skirt, there’s a two page spread showing three crows in the air, looking down over the lake, forest, and Anang’s home. I realize this is almost cheating, since it’s actually two pages, but there’s no border so it counts as a single panel to me!

This piece was incredibly fun to draw due to being able to include so much story in one image: we had the lake, a character in the story so far, the forest where the kids had been seen running already, the crows who were characters themselves, and the neighborhood where the kids live.

I felt like this was a beautiful encapsulation of the world of The Ribbon Skirt, where crows, spirits and other beings all come together, looking down at their human relatives below.

What are you working on next?

Currently, I’ve been taking on a lot of illustration work, most of which I can’t talk about just yet! But I can say that I’ve loved getting to expand the sort of work I’m doing, and would love to tackle chapter book illustrations next.

Cynsational Notes:

Cameron Mukwa (Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa) is an illustrator primarily working in graphic novels. His work shares his Anishinaabe heritage through storytelling and pattern design, as well as his lived experience as a nonbinary transgender person. He loves bright colors and bold designs that represent people of all backgrounds, and his passion is making art about being trans and happy, showing kids of all ages that it’s good to be different.

AJ Eversole, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, grew up in rural Oklahoma where her imagination flourished through endless games of make believe. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, she is a contributor to the forthcoming anthology Legendary Frybread Drive-In (Heartdrum, August 2024) and aspires to traditional publication. She lives in Fort Worth, Texas with her husband and son. Visit her on Threads & Instagram: @ajeversole