Contemporary Authors

• Sophie Lucido Johnson - http://www.sophielucidojohnson.com/cv-resume/

  Who is this person. What is her deal.

  Sophie Lucido Johnson writes & draws. She has a book coming out (in summer of 2018) from Touchstone Books called Many Love (and you can pre-order it now). She teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and she's lived in New Orleans and Chicago and Portland and in space.* She does commissions, she does comedy, and she loves pie.** Email her at sophielucidojohnson@gmail.com. Or just read her blog, because she is extremely forthcoming.

  COVER.jpg

  buy this now!

  *Sophie hasn't really lived in space but sometimes she feels like she has, and don't you too?

  **Like, she REALLY loves pie. Like, SO MUCH. Email Sophie about pie. You guys can just talk on and on and on about pie.

  ***By the way, Sophie is represented by Mackenzie Brady Watson at Stuart Krichevsky literary agency.

  Artist Statement

  Being a human is such a short (and long!), strange (and normal!) experience; artists hope to translate it, which is a sort of silly and stubborn thing to do. In my own silly and stubborn work, I pay careful attention to nature, humor, and humanness. I’m a writer and a drawer and a painter, and I intentionally intersect the visual with the verbal. My hope is to experiment with the ways our brains use language — in all its many iterations — to interpret life on earth.
  CV
  Education

  SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO, 2015 - 2017

  Masters’ of Fine Arts in Writing

  PRACTITIONER TEACHERS PROJECT, 2008 - 2009

  Louisiana State Teaching Certificate, Advanced

  Certification is advanced upon five years of full-time teaching.

  WHITMAN COLLEGE, 2004 - 2008

  Bachelor of Arts in English Creative Writing, Minors in Studio Art

  B.A. English achieved Spring 2008

  Cumulative GPA: 3.6; Major GPA: 3.8; Honors in English Creative Writing
  Teaching Experience

  School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2016-present

  Adjunct professor, 2017-present

  Designs syllabus, crafts instructional plan, and lead-teaches 4-hour creative writing and analytical reading classes once per week at the freshman college level.

  TA-A (Lead Lecturer/ Professor), 2016

  Independently designed a syllabus for a freshman writing course on the subject of mental health in traditional and graphic literature. Assigned projects and papers, designed classes, independently taught 4-hour classes once per week, and graded all course work.

  Country Day Creative Arts, summer 2015

  Instructor

  Designed syllabi and taught four units of creative writing and bookmaking for students ages 9-15.

  KidsmART, 2013-2015

  Teaching Artist

  Taught arts-integrated social emotional lessons to students with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Emotional Disturbances, from grades 4 through 12.
  Developed “With Feeling: Emotional Intelligence Through The Arts,” a free arts-integrated social emotional curriculum available through KidsmART.
  Collaborated with KidsMART as a general education Axis teacher for five years.

  Kennedy Center, 2014-2016

  Workshop Presenter

  Designed workshops for educators in the Washington, DC area and presented on the subject of visual arts and emotional literacy integration.

  VSA, 2014-2016

  Webinar Leader

  Designed webinars for educators nationwide and presents them on the subject of visual arts and emotional literacy integration.

  Langston Hughes Academy, 2009-2013

  Emotional Literacy/ Arts Integration Specialist, 2011-2013

  Taught a self-contained classroom of children with emotional disturbance; lead weekly pull-out sessions for students with behavioral difficulties in visual arts and emotional literacy.

  Special Education Coordinator, K-4, 2011-2013

  Managed three teachers; led professional development workshops on special education; managed Individual Education Plans for students with special needs; taught 12 small intervention groups; represented school for the FirstLine Schools Network; developed behavior intervention plans; conducted a variety of meetings for students’ families.

  First Grade Teacher, 2010-2011

  Worked as lead teacher in a first grade general education setting.

  Special Education Second Grade Inclusion Teacher, 2009-2010

  Worked as a special education teacher in a second grade inclusion setting.

  Rabouin High School, 2008-2009

  Special Education Coordinator, 10-12

  Worked as a Special Education teacher and chairperson in inclusion, self-contained, and resource settings in a 10th, 11th, and 12th grade high school in the Recovery School District.

  Teach for America Summer Institute, 2008

  First Grade Teacher, Phoenix, Arizona
  Writing, Journalism, and the Arts

  F Newsmagazine, 2015-2017

  Managing Editor, 2016-2017

  Manages award-winning student-run newsmagazine at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Leads editorial meetings, makes print and online publication decisions, acts as community liaison, writes weekly news updates, writes several articles per week, illustrates articles, assists in design project.

  Web Editor, 2015-2016

  Orchestrated daily content on news website, copy-edited for all published content, operated and managed content management system.

  Neutrons Protons Magazine, 2012-present

  Founder, editor-in-chief, workshop leader

  Designs all original artwork, solicits comic work, and edits all creative writing for online literary magazine and blog, maintains website, directs staff of six, manages submissions. Site receives 2000 hits per day. Magazine is also in print.
  Designed curriculum and taught creative writing workshops for adults at Big Class in New Orleans on the subject of Creative Nonfiction.

  The Chicagoist, 2016-2017

  Reporter

  Worked on a fill-in basis to produce up to eight articles per day for popular Chicago-based news and culture website.

  Illustrator, visual watercolor artist

  Illustrates for many mainstream publications, including The Guardian, VICE, Jezebel, and others.

  New Movement Theater, 2011-2015

  Performer, producer, social media director

  Coached and taught improvisational comedy classes at local comedy theater. Performs with sketch comedy team and improv comedy team. Participates in comedy festivals nationwide, and has gone on two nationwide comedy tours. Directs social media accounts for several of the theater’s sub-sects.

  The Nation Magazine, summer 2007

  Intern
  Awards and Recognitions

  Annual MFAW Writing Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017

  Stipend awarded annually for outstanding writing to two graduating students in the MFAW program

  Annual MFAW Teaching Fellowship from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017

  Stipend and teaching position awarded annually to one graduating student in the MFAW program

  Outstanding Leadership Award from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2017

  Monetary award for service and leadership for graduating students

  First Place for Best Alternative Story Design from MSUND Design Contest, 2017

  Second Place for Best Editorial Cartoon from the Illinois College Press Association, 2017

  First Place for Best Arts Criticism from the Illinois College Press Association, 2016

  Recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship at SAIC for MFAW Program, 2015

  Winner of Hippocampus Magazine’s Creative Nonfiction Contest, 2014

  Recipient of Institute of Mental Hygiene Annual Grant, with KidsmART, 2013, 2014

  Received a grant to develop social emotional curriculum for students in New Orleans

  Recipient of New Orleans Jazz Institute Grant, 2013

  For commitment to live music at Shipwrecked! Storytelling show

  Nominee for Sue Lehmann Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2010

  Distinction and Honors on English major at Whitman College, 2008

  Completed an Honors’ Thesis for creative writing and poetry in homage to Walt Whitman

  Award Recipient for Whitman College Honor of the Wailaptu, 2008

  Winner of Hosokawa Award in Journalism, 2006 and 2007

  Won two $500 awards in 2006: Best News Reporting and Best Opinion Writing. Won one $500 award in 2007: Best Opinion Writing.

  Recipient of the Whitman College Anderson Scholarship, 2004
  Academic Journalism

  Whitman College Pioneer, 2005-2008

  Editor-in-chief

  The Walla Walla Union Bulletin, 2007-2008

  Staff writer

  The Hyde Park Herald, 2006

  Intern

  Wilson High School Statesman, 2000-2004

  Multiple editorial
  Relevant Activities

  Co-founder, producer, Shipwrecked!

  Co-created popular New Orleans-specific storytelling show and podcast.

  Founding member and web designer for The New Teachers’ Roundtable, New Orleans

  Participated in formal discussions and activism surrounding the teaching community in New Orleans. Designed and manages the website NewTeachersNola.org.

  Volunteer work

  Current volunteer for several after school programs through One Good Deed Chicago. Past projects included work for Survivor’s Village, The United Teachers of New Orleans, Habitat for Humanity, and the New Orleans Childcare Collective.

  Langston Hughes Academy DIBELS mentor and coordinator school-wide

  Responsibilities included leading professional development and mentors whole staff on DIBELS diagnostic testing.

  Co-founder and co-facilitator for Troupe 947 Adventure Krewe

  Responsibilities included coordinating monthly camping trips for students in RSD schools.

  College extracurricular

  President of Action for Animals; Vice President of Whitman Peace Coalition; member of Black Student Union. Actor in several school-wide theatrical productions.
  Selected Publications

  Touchstone Books (Simon & Schuster), 2018

  Many Love: An Illustrated Journey Through Relationship Structures

  DAME, 2017

  https://www.damemagazine.com/2017/02/24/do-all-women-having-eating-disorders

  Guernica, 2016

  https://www.guernicamag.com/sophie-lucido-johnson-what-a-panic-attack-looks-like/

  The Guardian, 2015

  http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/oct/03/adulthood-adulting-millennials-growing-up

  VICE, 2015

  http://www.vice.com/read/how-art-therapy-helped-new-orleans-kids-deal-with-their-ptsd-511

  Jezebel, 2015

  http://jezebel.com/what-i-learned-when-i-tried-to-draw-myself-naked-1683805185

  Hippocampus Magazine, 2014

  http://www.hippocampusmagazine.com/2014/11/variations-on-prayer-by-sophie-lucido-johnson/

  Teaching Artists’ Journal, 2013-14

  http://tajaltspace.com/all-for-one-and-one-for-all-sophie-lucido-johnson/

  Complete Database

  http://www.sophielucidojohnson.com/writing/

• Mind Body Green - https://www.mindbodygreen.com/wc/sophie-lucido-johnson

  Sophie Lucido Johnson

  Sophie Lucido Johnson is a writer, illustrator, and comedian. Her work has been published in The New Yorker, the Guardian, VICE, McSweeney’s, Jezebel, mindbodygreen, and more. Her debut book, Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s), is now available wherever books are sold.

• Oprah - http://www.oprah.com/style/sophie-lucido-johnson-cartoons

  A Cartoonist's Act of Protest Against Body Shamers
  Sophie Lucido Johnson draws some new conclusions, thanks to her illustrated alter ego.
  By Sophie Lucido Johnson
  Illustration: Polly Becker
  When I first started making autobiographical comics and illustrations, I took hundreds of pictures of myself to get an objective sense of what I looked like. These days I've got my depiction down to a science: I draw myself barefoot with wide thighs and unstudied hair (think loose ponytails and sloppy buns). My clothes are as bland as possible: baggy T-shirts in various shades of beige, bunchy robes, discount leggings, and nary a fun accessory.

  Looking at cartoon me, you'd never know that my actual self wears a lot of mismatched bold patterns and polka dots. My actual self pairs orange lipstick with bird-print blouses and struts around in neon purple Keds. My actual self dresses like the inside of a jawbreaker candy, and my cartoon self has got to be jealous.

  Cartoon Sophie is out in public a lot—she's in several publications and just got a book deal. But I've always worried that if I make her too fabulous, Internet trolls will go wild with cracks about my delusional self-image. It's happened before: A few years ago, a stranger messaged me to say, "I thought you were making yourself look fugly as a joke, but you're gross IRL, too." Ashamed of my unearned gusto (and worried he was right), I didn't write anything else—or read the comments section—for months.

  A mentor once told me that for every loudmouthed troll who gets off on making women feel bad, there are dozens of women who are quietly grateful to be represented. And as more ladies in the world have modeled being loud and large, I've decided Cartoon Sophie should get a little braver, too. Just last week, I opened an old comic on my computer, zoomed in on my illustrated sweatpants, and carefully added polka dots.

  Want more stories like this delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the Oprah.com Style Newsletter!
  From the March 2017 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine
  RELATED VID

• Insider - https://www.thisisinsider.com/things-people-get-wrong-about-polyamory-2018-7

  Quoted in Siidelights: . “There are asexual people who engage in polyamory, communal living can be a kind of polyamory, and queer people often explore the polyamory model in different ways,” she said. “Polyamory to me is mostly about how much you’re willing to communicate and how much you’re willing to embrace the inevitable changes that come from this relationship. It’s too bad that quite a bit of the representation we see is something like, ‘man wants to sleep with other women.’ That’s just not all there is to it.” In the same interview, Johnson expressed appreciation for all her relationships. “I’m so grateful for all my many loves,” she said. “I feel utterly grateful that I have all these incredible people in my life who are so willing to be honest with me. It’s more work at the beginning, but it’s like anything else, when you have a habit it becomes easier.”

  A polyamorous woman reveals the 5 things people always get wrong about her love life
  Sara Hendricks Jul. 26, 2018, 11:13 AM

  Johnson author photo
  Sophie Lucido Johnson is a polyamorous woman — here, she sets the record straight on what being poly means. Emily Rich
  Polyamory is a relationship model in which a person has more than one romantic partner.
  INSIDER talked with Sophie Lucido Johnson, a polyamorous woman who recently published a book, " Many Love ," about her experiences with polyamory.
  Here, she explains what everyone gets wrong about being polyamorous.
  By now, you've probably heard the term polyamory . And although you probably understand the gist of polyamory — which, through its name alone, can be understood to refer to a relationship model in which a person has multiple romantic partners — you might not be quite sure what it entails.

  To set the record straight on polyamory, INSIDER talked with Sophie Lucido Johnson, a writer and illustrator who lives in Chicago. She has a few partners — a fiancé, a girlfriend, and a long-distance boyfriend — and she recently published a memoir, "Many Love," about her experiences as a polyamorous woman.

  Here's what she says everyone gets wrong about polyamory.

  MYTH: Being poly is the same as being in an open relationship.
  More often than not, polyamory and open relationships are thought to be synonymous. And though they have many things in common, they aren't quite the same.

  Polyamory generally refers to being romantically and emotionally involved with more than one person. An open relationship usually means that someone might have sex outside their relationship, but it probably doesn't go any farther than that.

  In short, all polyamorous relationships are technically open, but not all open relationships should be considered polyamorous.

  Many Love Illustration 3
  Polyamorous relationships often involve involve more of an emotional component than open relationships — and can sometimes take the form of friendships. Sophie Lucido Johnson/Simon & Schuster
  Part of the confusion comes from the narrow representation of either one in popular culture.

  "If you see open relationship models on television, it's always a heterosexual, usually white couple who after years of being monogamous decides to open up their relationship, and it's done in a 'hall pass' kind of capacity," Johnson told INSIDER. "That is just not the only way that this relationship structure can work. I don't even think that it's the healthiest way the relationship structure works."

  In real life, polyamory is much more inclusive.

  "There are asexual people who engage in polyamory, communal living can be a kind of polyamory, and queer people often explore the polyamory model in different ways," Johnson told INSIDER. "Polyamory to me is mostly about how much you're willing to communicate and how much you're willing to embrace the inevitable changes that come from this relationship. It's too bad that quite a bit of the representation we see is something like, 'man wants to sleep with other women.' That's just not all there is to it."

  MYTH: People who practice polyamory never get jealous.
  It can be easy to assume that because people in poly relationships pursue multiple people, it means they don't feel jealousy at all. But in Johnson's experience, polyamorous people simply approach jealousy in a different way.

  "I think in a lot of monogamous relationship structures, the strategy is to go around jealousy. In polyamory, the strategy is to go through it," Johnson told INSIDER. "So if you start to feel jealous in a monogamous relationship, you might do a lot of rationalizing, and if you're the person causing the jealousy, you might be kind of defensive. You're trying to keep the person from feeling jealous. In polyamory, you're saying, 'I understand why you're feeling this way, and maybe there's some truth to it.'"

  Many Love Illustration
  Many people in polyamorous relationships still experience jealousy — they just approach it in a different way. Sophie Lucido Johnson/Simon & Schuster
  This isn't necessarily easy to do, Johnson said, but it gets easier over time.

  "There's an initial jolt, and that feels really bad the first few times you go through it, but then it stops feeling bad. Jealousy has become way less of an issue for me than it once was," Johnson told INSIDER. "It's like going to the gym and getting good at doing push-ups. It's no longer something that's so painful that you can't understand why anyone would go through it."

  MYTH: Becoming poly can help your relationship if it's on the rocks.
  If you've hit a rough patch in a relationship that you really want to work, it can be tempting to think about opening it up or using polyamory as a way to try to fix things. But it's rare for this to actually work, as a desire to be polyamorous should come from within. Otherwise, adding more people into the mix will just serve to complicate things further.

  "I understand why people would think that opening up your relationship is something you think you could do to fix it," Johnson told INSIDER. "And I'm sure there are instances where people have done that and it has worked. But in general, that's just a death sentence for your relationship. And if someone doesn't want to be polyamorous, and you do, that's a mismatch. You probably aren't going to be in that relationship long term."

  MYTH: Polyamory is all about sex.
  It's tempting to focus on the most outrageous aspects of any concept, and polyamory is no exception. When you hear about someone having more than one partner, it can be easy to assume that the main purpose of the relationship model is to have lots of sex.

  Many Love Illustration 2
  Sex is important in poly relationships, but that's not all there is to it. Sophie Lucido Johnson/Simon & Schuster
  Sex is obviously a factor in polyamory — about as much as it would be in many other relationship — but that's not all there is to it. For Johnson, it's more about making and keeping strong connections, whether they stay romantic or not.

  "A wonderful thing happened yesterday, a friend of mine who I dated for a few years, he and his wife flew in for a visit and surprised me," Johnson told INSIDER. "It was a really good poly moment. It was like, 'Oh my god, we used to have sex, and now we don't, and it's great.'"

  Johnson works hard to maintain these relationships. She and her fiancé hang out with her girlfriend and her boyfriend fairly regularly, and Johnson makes sure to carve out time to talk on the phone with her long-distance boyfriend, who lives in New Orleans, every Monday.

  This takes some effort, but for Johnson, it's well worth it.

  "I'm so grateful for all my many loves. I feel utterly grateful that I have all these incredible people in my life who are so willing to be honest with me," Johnson told INSIDER. "It's more work at the beginning, but it's like anything else, when you have a habit it becomes easier."

  MYTH: Polyamory is an unnatural relationship model.
  The idea of a polyamorous relationship may seem mildly scandalous to anyone who grew up watching fairy tales and romantic comedies and, as a result, became accustomed to the idea of having one true love for the rest of your life. But in the future, non-monogamy — in any form — may become more common.

  "I'm a high school teacher, and none of my students are in monogamous relationships," Johnson told INSIDER. "The idea that a book like mine could be controversial is totally over their heads. To them, it's incredibly vanilla."

  Johnson suggested that people are gravitating toward a system of " relationship anarchy ," which essentially means defining your relationships on your own terms, not by the terms that have been laid out by societal constructs. This makes pursuing many " unconventional" relationship models, including polyamory, much easier.

  There is some data to back this up. According to a 2015 Gallup poll, 16% of Americans viewed the concept of a married person having more than one partner as "acceptable." This, compared to a 7% acceptability rating in 2001, showed a 9% increase over time.

  As polyamory becomes more accepted, it's worth educating yourself on the lifestyle.

  For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage .

Quoted in Sidelights: “The book mirrors her lifestyle in the unconventionality of its presentation,” related a Kirkus Reviews contributor. Johnson, the critic pointed out, “adds a dash of humor and incisive observation to almost every page of her text with comic book-style drawings” and “peppers her work with statistics and thoughtful commentary.” This “multipronged approach … makes for enjoyable, accessible reading,”

Johnson, Sophie Lucido: MANY LOVE
Kirkus Reviews.
(Apr. 15, 2018): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 Kirkus Media LLC http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Johnson, Sophie Lucido MANY LOVE Touchstone/Simon & Schuster (Adult Nonfiction) $16.00 6, 26 ISBN: 978-1-5011-8978-4
A writer and illustrator reveals how she went from serial monogamist to happily married polyamorist.
Johnson grew up with parents who had a "model nuclear relationship." After almost 50 years, it was still as strong as it had been when they married at age 20. So it was no surprise that the author's early ideas about love and sex were largely shaped by conventional norms. Throughout her adolescence, Johnson engaged in courtship rituals without ever considering that other relationship options might be as--or even more--fulfilling as a heterosexual coupling. In college, she found herself emotionally drawn to women. The intensity of Johnson's feelings inspired her to follow one friend to Chicago and fall into nonsexual love with a woman named Hannah when she was later living in New Orleans. The emotional attraction for Hannah was intense enough that she eventually felt the need to explain just how important it was to the people she was dating. Desiring more freedom and autonomy than a conventional relationship would allow, the author began having relationships that allowed her to not only date other men, but also spend significant time with the women close to her. In her refreshingly candid and provocative narrative, Johnson seeks to present polyamory as a practice that is about "emotional consideration and communication" rather than selfish and unrestrained libertinism. The book mirrors her lifestyle in the unconventionality of its presentation. In addition to including a polyamory FAQ at the beginning of the book, the author adds a dash of humor and incisive observation to almost every page of her text with comic book-style drawings. She also peppers her work with statistics and thoughtful commentary on the history and culture of polyamory. Johnson's multipronged approach not only demystifies a much-maligned and misunderstood practice; it also makes for enjoyable, accessible reading.
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Illuminating and entertaining.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Johnson, Sophie Lucido: MANY LOVE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 Apr. 2018. Book Review Index
Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A534375157/GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS& xid=bc608a95. Accessed 15 July 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A534375157
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Quoted in Sidelights: “candor and wit” as well as her “clear and conversational” style. Many Love, Eathorne predicted, “is sure to spark conversation about the many manifestations of love.”
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory
and Finding Love(s)
Courtney Eathorne
Booklist.
114.17 (May 1, 2018): p51. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s).
By Sophie Lucido Johnson.
June 2018. 288p. Illus. Touchstone, paper, $16 (9781501189784); e-book (9781501189791). 306.84.
In her debut collection of essays and comics, writer and art-school-instructor Johnson pulls back the curtain on the logistics of functional polyamory. With candor and wit, she shares the romantic, sexual, and platonic experiences of her young adult life as a way of exploring her path to maintaining multiple romantic partners. For readers new to the topic, Johnson explains the basics in a clear and conversational manner. She writes about cohabitation, sex, relationship rules, jealousy, compersion (jealousy's positive counterpart), and love, and recognizes that every polyamorous experience is different, as are the needs of every practitioner. Set in New Orleans and Chicago, her stories are peppered with details of life as a millennial woman navigating modern urban dating scenes. Online dating and hook-up apps flourished at the same time as Johnson's sexual awakening, both complicating and simplifying her relationships at different points. The integration of illustrations in each narrative enhances the book and calls to mind Phoebe Gloeckner's Diary of a Teenage Girl (2002). Johnson's accessible, personal, and artistic exploration of polyamory is sure to spark conversation about the many manifestations of love.-- Courtney Eathorne
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Eathorne, Courtney. "Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s)." Booklist, 1
May 2018, p. 51. Book Review Index Plus, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A539647309 /GPS?u=schlager&sid=GPS&xid=3cf924aa. Accessed 15 July 2018.
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Gale Document Number: GALE|A539647309
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• Powells
  http://www.powells.com/post/qa/powells-qa-sophie-lucido-johnson-author-of-many-love
  Word count: 3714

  Quoted in Sidelights: “is very difficult for me to describe,” she told an interviewer at the website for Portland, Oregon, bookseller Powell’s Books. “You are supposed to have an elevator pitch for the book you have written, but I have struggled greatly with such a pitch.” Her pitch to her mother, she said, would be “It is kind of like a memoir, but I’m also trying to answer people’s questions about polyamory. I interviewed a bunch of people who know more about it than I do! I interviewed Dan Savage, even. He’s VERY famous. There are also drawings in it. It’s kind of chronological; there are charts.”

  Powell's Q&A: Sophie Lucido Johnson, Author of 'Many Love'
  by Sophie Lucido Johnson, July 2, 2018 10:56 AM
  Many Love by Sophie Lucido Johnson
  Photo credit: Emily Rich

  Describe your latest book.
  I have written a book called Many Love, which is very difficult for me to describe. You are supposed to have an elevator pitch for the book you have written, but I have struggled greatly with such a pitch. Here are the different ways I’ve described it to different people:

  Modern-looking woman: “It’s an illustrated memoir about polyamory.”

  Cool, comics-loving guy whom I might want to someday date: “Yeah, it’s mostly a comic. It’s like, an autobiographical comic? But there are words in there, too, that aren’t part of the comic; it's like Phoebe Gloeckner’s book, but different.”

  My grandmother: “It’s a sort of sociological book with my own stories and it’s vaguely about the evolution of human love. You shouldn’t read it, you would find it boring.”

  A potential employer: “It’s being published by an imprint of Simon and Schuster!”

  My mom: “It’s a lot of things, Mom. It is kind of like a memoir, but I’m also trying to answer people’s questions about polyamory. I interviewed a bunch of people who know more about it than I do! I interviewed Dan Savage, even. He’s VERY famous. There are also drawings in it. It’s kind of chronological; there are charts. You’re in it a lot. I hope you’re OK with what I wrote! I love you.”

  What was your favorite book as a child?
  I was really, really into The Baby-Sitters Club. When I was nine I told everyone I was going to get a BSC tattoo one day, and I think I probably still will. My favorite sitter at the time was Mary Anne, because she had a boyfriend. I have since changed lanes and am now 100 percent Team Claudia.

  When did you know you were a writer?
  My sister was a baby (who could not yet talk) when I intrinsically understood that it would be my life’s work to write books that would specifically please her delicate literary palate. I started with Princess Pony Goes to the Dentist. My baby sister loved this book. The writer in me was born.

  What does your writing workspace look like?

  An illustration of Sophie Lucido Johnson's workspace with numerical labels.

  1. I like the cheapest chair at the thrift store. The current iteration is orange, and it is going to break in like a week, but I like its flair.
  2. I have six different watercolor palettes, and at least two are always out at a time. One is for dry pads, the other is for wet goo pads. I don’t think I use the palettes properly. In fact, just writing the word “palette” is giving me imposter syndrome.
  3. There’s no art supply I’m fonder of than the shiny transparent tape that was important for 'zines in the ’90s.
  4. I try to steal as many exhibitor badges as I can when I go to festivals. As you can see, I have collected exactly one.
  5. These are all wooden rubber stamps, and they are pretty much all birds. This is for when I need people to understand that I am deeply committed to my twee-ness.
  6. I bought one of these clip-on phone holders that all the teens are into these days solely to be able to film myself doing dip-pen lettering. I watch the videos and get all aroused by the sound of the metal tip of the pen on the paper.
  7. The memory I have associated with this lamp is putting little stick-on jewels on it after a parade in New Orleans, while simultaneously telling a man I had fallen in love with him. I remember wondering when the jewels would fall off.
  8. La Croix, which I have delivered once a week because it’s too heavy to carry and our fruit market doesn’t stock it and I don’t have a car.
  9. I keep a full cup of dirty watercolor water on my desk even when I’m not actively watercoloring. When it’s the morning, I often accidentally dip my paintbrush in a cup of coffee while I’m painting. A lot of times, the cats like to drink the dirty paint water. Cats are so punk.
  10. A Powell’s water bottle! The one I’m using now is the science fiction one, because it fucking glows in the dark.
  11. This is my poor laptop, which I have dropped on the floor more than 100 times. The bottom comes clean off if you pull on it. The keypad stopped clicking like four years ago because I spilled cooking oil on it. It often gets angry and makes a loud whirring noise and you can’t make it stop unless you stroke it and speak to it in dulcet tones.
  12. It’s positively shameful what I do to commissions I’m working on. I just wedge them here and there and let the cats walk on them, and I spill water on them, and generally don’t treat them lovingly. You can see dozens of them in this drawing, stashed all willy-nilly in precarious spots on my desk. I am sorry.
  13. This is a plastic letter-holder that is shaped like a paper crane. I bought it at Target. I am into being a pen pal. I have a few pen pals still sprinkled throughout the United States, and I try to keep up with them. Letter mail is the best mail: the end.
  14. It appears there is no 14.
  15. Once I ordered away for a McSweeney’s box of postcards. On the box it says, “Greetings from the Ocean’s Sweaty Face.” Once there were 100, and I have sent almost every one of them.
  16. Wedged between some estranged commissions is my sleeve of drawing supplies. It contains: two G-nib dip pens, two Pentel Pocket Brushes, two Pentel architectural pencils rigged with blue lead, one white grease pencil, a size 10 round brush, a size 1 striping brush, a chewed-on number two pencil, a neon yellow Prisma, a size 02 Micron, a smudge stick, and a piece of bamboo fashioned into a pen by a wonderful drawing teacher. Also, I usually try to stick a plastic eraser and a brass bullet pencil sharpener in there, but they always fall out.
  17. Oh look! Another palette! I didn’t realize it was hiding out back there! Hey, other palette!
  18. This is the Dungeon Masters’ Guide, 5th Edition. It is among the greatest creative writing manuals ever published.
  19. I am a teacher, and I always have stacks and stacks of things to grade and return. I diligently come up with organizational systems with which to accomplish these tasks. Then all the papers end up haphazardly on this green table in a jumble.
  20. This is a slide paper cutter that’s always getting lost. There it is!
  21. Throw everything that is no longer serving you in the trash and never look back. (Unless it’s recyclable or compostable, in which case, act accordingly.)
  22. Paper is so frustratingly sized. It never fits anywhere! Mine is just all over the floor.
  23. Here’s my at-home printer, and I think it’s the most important thing for a writer or a reader to have. I know, I know: tree-saving, etc. But the thing is, holding your writing in your hands and marking it up with a ball point pen is vastly superior to all the other ways of dealing with writing.
  24. I have an electric typewriter that is not at all cute (it’s from the ’90s), and I use it for writing letters. I am totally over typewriters whose only job is to be cute. I vastly prefer these aesthetically lacking gray workhorses that never get stuck keys or weird ink blotches.
  25. It appears there’s no 25, either.
  26. This door does not open. Beyond it is the mudroom in our house, and currently the mudroom contains a cardboard box that’s vaguely shaped like a piano, and several La Croix deliveries.
  27. I’ve kept diaries since I was five, and have written in them on average four times a week. So I have hundreds (yes, plural hundreds) of diaries. They just go on and on and on. Chris Ware once told me that he was jealous of this fact about me, and I immediately went and cried tears of impossible joy and wrote this new memory in my diary.

  What do you care about more than most people around you?
  Pigeons. I talk to pigeons a lot. I believe that pigeons know more about life than humans do, and that their importance has yet to be really understood by modern man. (Ancient man, on the other hand, was able to see the beauty of pigeons. There is a lot of evidence that they were raised and beloved by old-school royalty in places like Rome.)

  Share an interesting experience you've had with one of your readers.
  When I first started writing about polyamory, I got a lot of unsolicited Facebook messages from people who wanted to know how my love life was going. Someone wrote, “Please help me settle a bet with my mom. Are you and Ned still in love?” Ned and I had gone our separate ways. “Definitely. Polyamory always works,” I responded. It is more important to help the right person win a bet than to tell the truth to a stranger, I always say.

  Tell us something you're embarrassed to admit.
  I’m embarrassed about every one of my Secret Snacks. A Secret Snack is a snack you eat alone in your room because you had a bad day and you’re sort of feeling like, “What’s the point of it all?” On a good week, I go for a Secret Snack three times or so. Examples include: Skittles and buttered popcorn in the same bowl, plain flour tortillas microwaved with olive oil and cinnamon sugar, and Oreos crushed up in a blender so you can eat them with a spoon.

  Introduce one other author you think people should read, and suggest a good book with which to start.
  The “children’s book author” Byrd Baylor is a modern Shakespeare, and she should be worshipped en masse. She and her collaborator — a sort of trippy illustrator named Peter Parnall who’s always doing weird line drawings that don’t make complete logical sense — have done upwards of a dozen books together, and I can never believe that they’re not on everyone’s shelves. Byrd Baylor is brilliant because her books act like they’re for children, but really they’re for grown-ups who are afraid of books, or who don’t yet know how simple the deepest truths really are. Start either with The Table Where Rich People Sit or Everybody Needs A Rock. Get ready to send me a long, gushing thank-you email for making this introduction.

  Besides your personal library, do you have any beloved collections?
  a. I have seven bone china cats that I found in my mother’s attic. I think they were once her mother’s.
  b. In high school, for all four years, I picked up a Sweet'N Low packet from every restaurant I went to, wrote the name of the restaurant on it, and dated it. I love remembering just how many times my friends and I went to Denny's.
  c. There is a small drawer in the repurposed card catalog in my studio that is labeled “dinosaurs.” It contains lots of small dinosaurs. Does this count as a collection? I love it, but I am very eager to give these little dinosaurs away. I like when someone brings their kid over and I get to say, “Do you know what? I have a drawer of dinosaurs. Do you want one?"
  d. 237 spatulas.
  e. For a while, I collected false bananas. There are a few relics left, although I have given most of them away. It’s funny when you stop collecting something. You see a false banana and your heart skips, because it has been trained to get excited upon such a sighting; then you remember that you’re not really into false bananas anymore, and you leave it. It’s a little like becoming an adult.

  What's the most interesting job you've ever had?
  I delivered newspapers, thinking that it was the first step on the road to being a journalist. There were two guys who worked in the paper-bagging room named Hank. It’s not like there were a lot of people working in there; really, it was just me and the Hanks. I thought that two Hanks was pretty unusual.

  Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
  I’ve gotten pretty good at getting into the back rooms at the Chicago Field Museum. It’s just drawers and cabinets full of animals that were alive once and now aren’t, or shelves of jars of rodents or snakes or extinct lizards all bottled in chemicals so they look like pickles. I can’t convey to you the size of the animal collection. It feels like you’re in the stacks of the biggest library in the world, but everything is skins or feathers or furs, neatly labeled with fascinating tan tags. I know this isn’t a big trip or anything, but there’s nowhere that makes me want to write more. The human relationship to the rest of the living world — how we clumsily navigate it — is on full display. What else is there to really write about?

  What scares you the most as a writer?
  Does it have to be a writerly thing? Because, writer or not, it’s still going to be sitting in the passenger seat while someone I don’t really trust is trying to merge onto the freeway.

  If someone were to write your biography, what would be the title and subtitle?
  This is written after I die: Owl Girl: The Woman Who Gave Up Her Life as a Writer to Live Among the Owls (Until She Became One)

  Offer a favorite passage from another writer.
  “If a person has ugly thoughts, it begins to show on the face. And when that person has ugly thoughts every day, every week, every year, the face gets uglier and uglier until you can hardly bear to look at it. A person who has good thoughts cannot ever be ugly. You can have a wonky nose and a crooked mouth and a double chin and stick-out teeth, but if you have good thoughts it will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” — Roald Dahl, The Twits

  Share a sentence of your own that you're particularly proud of.
  “I ain’t saying she’s a gold-digger; I’m just saying she moved to California in 1850, so one has to wonder.”

  Describe a particularly memorable dream.
  I keep a dream journal. Here is its most recent entry: “I’m dating Sarah Silverman, and she is really hard to date, but she likes me and we have really good sexual chemistry. Also, she is a man? She is a gay man with another boyfriend and they aren’t threatened by me because I’m dating soooo many people. At one point, one of the people and I sit on a red couch under a green blanket. We both have on green outfits, and we are trying to talk to Sarah Silverman, who as a man is named Dane. We are trying to talk about non-monogamy and the paparazzi come in. They want to photograph us, I assume because they think the colors in the picture are so good, but then my mom comes in and gets really upset because she thinks the publications are going to out us as socialists. I try to talk to Dane-Sarah about emotions, but he doesn’t want to. I try to talk to him about his childhood and he doesn’t want to. It was too traumatic and he doesn’t like to dredge that stuff up. I start to tell the story of the night heron (?). In the end, my mom is mad at me because she thinks I’m backing out of buying a house. She used to trust me when I was studying abroad in Spain, but no longer. I yell at her that she has made a lot of unfounded assumptions."

  So, either that or the 2016 presidential election.

  What's your biggest grammatical pet peeve?
  It’s a really silly one, but I’m bugged by lay/lie errors. Everyone’s always like, “I’m going to go lay down.” And I’m like, “What are you going to lay down — your burdens!?”

  Do you have any phobias?
  I am medium-afraid of bacterial clusters.

  Name a guilty pleasure you partake in regularly.
  Well, all of the above (seriously), but my big one is that I take a bath basically every day and read a trashy magazine. I subscribe to 31 magazines. Name a magazine. Did you name one? Yes, I subscribe to that magazine.

  What's the best advice you’ve ever received?
  “Don’t take it personally. It’s never about you.”

  Write a question of your own, then answer it.
  Q: Shouldn’t you stop procrastinating and make a dentist appointment already? Because don’t your teeth hurt and isn’t it difficult for you to even eat your favorite Secret Snacks anymore because of this tooth pain?
  A: Really good point, Powell’s. Thank you. I will do it.

  My Top Five Graphic Books (In No Order Whatsoever).
  These graphic books are all superlative to me in some way, shape, or form. We are living in the golden era of indie graphic novels, and we couldn’t be luckier. If there’s even one of these you haven’t read, go out right now and read it. Not a single one of these books will take you longer than a day to read.

  Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli
  This is likely the greatest graphic novel ever written (just objectively speaking), and I have never met a person who did not love it. It’s about an architect, a hole in the earth, and the meaning of love. If you’re ever in a book club, and you have to choose a book for the club to read, choose this one. You will be the most beloved one in the club, and people will think you’re cool and smart.

  New Construction: Two More Stories by Sam Alden
  Full disclosure: I know Sam pretty well, but I met him a decade ago because I found his art on the Internet and wept over loving it so much. I think he’s the best living storyteller. His comics collections — this is the second one, following the also excellent It Never Happened Again — are dark and funny and they make you feel emotions that you can’t even really describe because the emotions are so strange. He has a deserved cult following, and now you will be in it.

  SuperMutant Magic Academy by Jillian Tamaki
  This is my favorite book ever, of all time. It’s a very funny collection of comics about superheroes, monsters, and generally magical people who all go to school together. There’s no real storyline, but every page-long piece can stand on its own, and is at once very funny and very deep.

  The Complete Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson
  Sam Alden (see above) introduced me to this comic strip years and years ago, before Thompson passed away from Parkinson’s in 2016. It was in The Oregonian for a while, I think. If you are a Calvin and Hobbes person, you will be seduced by these strips, which are both smart and sweet. They make you feel good about humanity, if only for a short time.

  Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke
  This is a gorgeous book about loneliness, abandoned places, decay, death, love, life, and growing up. Radtke is a master of her trade, nonfiction writing, eloquently expressed in meticulous drawings. I have been a fan of hers for years, but when this book dropped, I felt like she had truly transcended the world around her.
  ÷ ÷ ÷
  Sophie Lucido Johnson is a writer, illustrator, comedian, and the editor-in-chief of neutrons/protons, an online literary magazine. She has been published in The New Yorker, Guernica, The Guardian, VICE, Catapult, DAME, McSweeney’s, Jezebel, The Hairpin, The Nation, and ROOKIE, among others. She has just completed an MFAW at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Many Love is her first book.

• F Newmagazin
  http://fnewsmagazine.com/2018/05/an-interview-with-author-sophie-lucido-johnson/
  Word count: 1832

  Quoted in Sidelights: “We often ask love to stand still. Never in the history of time has love stood still. Embrace this reality; enjoy that things change. Relationships are strange and funny and always beautiful and always painful. If you enter into them with that knowledge, the pain can be kind of beautiful, too. Re-evaluate constantly and don’t be afraid of communicating what you need. The people who are right for you will be able to hear what you need and accommodate you.” Polyamorists can be married, she added, noting that she and her fiance, Luke, were planning a wedding for the fall of 2018. She told Frumkin: I want to tell everyone in the world that I love this person, and I want to promise him that I will stick by him no matter what happens. This has nothing to do with sex. But, I’m excited to have a jazz band and a bunch of tacos and be around everyone I love. … I’m just going with the flow of this relationship, and letting it change as it naturally changes.”

  An Interview With Author Sophie Lucido Johnson

  By Irena Frumkin May 9, 2018 Arts & Culture, Featured

  Illustration by Alex Kostiw.

  Sophie Lucido Johnson is a woman. She lives in Chicago, and she is publishing a book — an illustrated memoir about polyamory — that is due to be released on June 26. Publishing a book is kinda sorta a big deal, especially when you’ve been hustling nonstop to achieve what most writers only dream of. Lucido Johnson took a break from her high profile life as a great American author (and inspirational high school teacher) to talk to F Newsmagazine about life, relationships, and publishing.

  F Newsmagazine: First of all, how are you?

  Sophie Lucido Johnson: I’m ok. Honestly, not great. I just bought a house with my fiancé and the roofer caught it on fire.
  (He was trying to use a blowtorch to melt some ice, you know, like you do.)

  This was over a month ago, and I’ve been just chin-deep in the whole bureaucracy of insurance companies and roofers and people who manage properties and contractors. Everyone is trying to swindle me all the time and I wish I was badass and strong about this, but I’m just crying constantly.

  So, when you aren’t dealing with the flaming hurdles life throws at you, what do you do to keep busy or pay rent?

  SLJ: I write illustrated essays. I do this because I like to write and I like to draw, and I have always liked to do those things.

  I teach at SAIC and at ChiArts. I do this because teaching allows me to get out of my own tiny little universe, which feels so giant and all-
  consuming when I’m left alone with my thoughts.

  I bake pies for my friends and family. I do this because I love pie and I think it is an important religion.

  I spend ample time with my two cats, Puppy and Norman. If you met them, you would immediately understand why I do it.

  I tune pianos. This is a new and liberating thing for me, and so far, I have only tuned one piano. But it went exceedingly well. I think we are taught that things like changing tires and tuning pianos are hard and so you shouldn’t try to do these things yourself. I am learning that everything that people have told you you can’t do is a thing that other people can do; and if other people can do it, then so, probably, can you.

  Tell us about your book! When is it coming out? How can I get one?

  My book is called “Many Love: An Illustrated Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s).” It is coming out on June 26. The launch party will be at Women and Children First in Andersonville on June 29 at 7:30 p.m. You can buy one there, or pre-order on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powell’s; all those online places where people buy books.

  What inspired you to write “Many Love” aside from, duh, personal experiences?

  SLJ: When I got to SAIC, my advisor Jill Riddell asked me what I wanted to work on. I said, “I really can’t write anything that takes longer than a sitting to write. I’m a quick writer, and if I stop writing something, it dies. I can’t resurrect it.” Jill said, “You are a person who, given a beach, sticks to the shore and is very good at collecting shells.” I was like, “Huh?” She was like, “I want to encourage you to get in a boat and go deep into the middle of the water, where you can’t see land anymore and everything is disorienting and you have no idea what you’re going to get out of it.” I was like, “Again, what?” And Jill said, “You should write a book.”

  And so the next week I came in with a bunch of book ideas. I was thinking about polyamory a lot at the time, and I decided that that was the one I wanted to pursue.

  Tell me a little bit about the process of getting a book published. (You don’t have to go into the nitty gritty and you don’t have to give away trade secrets.) What has your own personal experience with this process been like?

  SLJ: OL. “Give away trade secrets.” Listen, if I could say something that hasn’t been said before about how to get a book published, I totally would. I have an agent. I wish I could tell you how I got this agent; she found a piece I wrote for Jezebel and emailed me and we talked on the phone and before you knew it, I had someone to send all my writing to. I think if you’re selling a book — and you’re trying to sell to a major publisher — you kind of need an agent. Some agents take unsolicited submissions, so it makes sense to shop your manuscript around to agencies who will advocate for your work rather than publishing houses.

  When did you know you wanted to be a writer? Did you ever really “know”?

  I was four. I wrote a book called “Princess Pony Goes to the Dentist.” I read it to my sister, who was a baby. She basically thought it was good, and I declared to my mom and dad that I was going to be a writer.

  “Many Love” describes navigating the word with multiple partners, but you are currently planning for your wedding. How do you reconcile more “traditional” forms of so-called relationship landmarks — such as marriage — with polyamory? As in, how do you stay true to yourself?

  Oh, I don’t know. We’re getting married. I want to tell everyone in the world that I love this person, and I want to promise him that I will stick by him no matter what happens. This has nothing to do with sex. But, I’m excited to have a jazz band and a bunch of tacos and be around everyone I love. My mom is making my dress. We won’t have bridal parties or a big ceremony, but it will be nice. I’m just going with the flow of this relationship, and letting it change as it naturally changes.

  How did you meet your fiancé?

  I kind of stalked Luke for a few years in New Orleans. I thought he was super-hot and I’d see him at events. At a storytelling show, I smelled his hair. Once, he showed up at the school where I worked. I followed him around the school trying to make eye contact, to no avail. One night I found him on Tinder and nearly dropped my phone. I swiped right and held my breath, and because God is kind, it was a match! I sent him the world’s creepiest message (“I’ve been stalking you for several years and I know where you live”), and he responded! When we went on our first date I thought he was arrogant and I disliked him. But he was persistent and our second date was amazing. He is amazing. He is a literal earth angel and I thank the Mysterious Universe every day that somehow our paths crossed.

  Are we invited to the wedding?

  Yes­ — OPEN WEDDING! New Orleans, October 13. See you there!

  Any advice for aspiring writers/illustrators?

  Just keep making the thing you like to make. Don’t ask anyone to pay you for it, but do publish it. Do it all the time. Put up the stuff you think sucks. Make things constantly. Call this “practice.” You’ll improve, and someone will notice. When you do submit your work, you’ll have a whole portfolio of the shit you did just for yourself, and people will like that. If ever you’re thinking, “I want to get paid for this,” you’re doing it wrong. The getting paid for it just kind of comes. As soon as you want to get paid for something, you stop loving it. I wish this wasn’t true, but it is. For this reason, you should find a tolerable day job that doesn’t require too, too much of you, so you can spend your evenings and weekends making things just ‘cause you want to.

  Any advice for aspiring polyamor…ists(?)?

  We often ask love to stand still. Never in the history of time has love stood still. Embrace this reality; enjoy that things change. Relationships are strange and funny and always beautiful and always painful. If you enter into them with that knowledge, the pain can be kind of beautiful, too. Re-evaluate constantly and don’t be afraid of communicating what you need. The people who are right for you will be able to hear what you need and accommodate you. Trust me: there is someone out there who will say “yes” to your particular crazy, and you’ll be so glad you were honest from the get-go.

  Finally, how many is too many?

  Sugar cubes: 2.5

  Ducklings: 38

  Snacks per day: seven

  Shepherds per flock: two

  Girl Scout cookies: about 12 Thin Mints, eight Tagalongs, or four Samoas

  Partners: It varies from person to person. I have never been able to seriously date more than three.
  Arts & Culture, Featured An Interview With Author Sophie Lucido Johnson

• She Reads With Cats
  https://shereadswithcats.com/review-many-love-by
  Word count: 403

  Quoted in Sidelights: “an honest and refreshing take on love and relationships … enlightening, evocative, witty, insightful, and fascinating!”

  Review: MANY LOVE by Sophie Lucido Johnson
  JANELLE JUNE 29, 2018 BOOK REVIEWS, FINISHED COPY, FROM PUBLISHER, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION, TOUCHSTONE BOOKS 0 COMMENTS

  Many thanks to Touchstone Books for providing my free copy – all opinions are my own.

  Book Description:

  After trying for years to emulate her boomer parents’ forty-year and still-going-strong marriage, Sophie realized that maybe the love she was looking for was down a road less traveled. In this bold, graphic memoir, she explores her sexuality, her values, and the versions of love our society accepts and practices. Along the way, she shares what it’s like to play on Tinder side-by-side with your boyfriend, encounter—and surmount—many types of jealousy, learn the power of female friendship, and other amazing things that happened when she stopped looking for “the one.”

  My Review:

  The great thing about reading memoirs is I get to learn something new or at least learn a new perspective, so I usually like to read a variety. MANY LOVE is an honest and refreshing take on love and relationships – I absolutely enjoyed it! It’s enlightening, evocative, witty, insightful, and fascinating!

  Johnson is a clever writer and illustrator who brings to light how she went from serial monogamist to a proud polyamorist. I love how she defines the term and explains the meaning as “many love” not “many sex”. We follow her transformation from a monogamous marriage to polyamorous relationships, not focusing on finding “the one”. Ultimately, this book is also about friendships, sexuality, jealousy, and how society perceives others’ relationships.

  The overall construction of the memoir is brilliant. The drawings add depth and humor to the narrative. Johnson is delightfully charming and her personality really shines through. Case in point, I actually laughed-out-loud when she used the fictitious name Rory from the Gilmore Girls to protect the identity of other people. Johnson includes a FAQ section, commentary notes, and the culture and history of polyamory, all along with comic style drawings on almost every page. MANY LOVE is a provocative, interesting, and illustrated memoir I highly recommend to anyone looking for a new perspective on love.

  My rating is 5 out of 5 stars!

  Click here to purchase on Amazon.

• Broadly
  https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/7xq49d/many-love-polyamory-sophie-lucido-johnson-book
  Word count: 1454

  Quoted in Sidelights: “the nitty-gritty negotiations of unconventional romance.” These passages are “compelling,: Winnick observed, “not least because of how freely she shares her emotions, how expansively vulnerable she is. At times, it feels like you’re sitting at Johnson’s kitchen table, witnessing her processing with her partner; her writing rings that true a transcript.”

  Jul 26 2018, 1:20pm
  What We Can All Learn from Polyamorous Relationships
  "Many Love," Sophie Lucido Johnson's new memoir chronicling her years of polyamorous partnerships, is actually a lesson on what it means to be committed.

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  In the middle of our interview about her new book, Many Love: A Memoir of Polyamory and Finding Love(s), Sophie Lucido Johnson casually invites me to her wedding.

  “Oh yeah,” the author and artist says, “we’re having an open wedding...it’s October 13, in New Orleans. We got a ton of tacos for hundreds and hundreds of people...it’s going to be in City Park....you can come! Just search 'Luke & Sophie’s Wedding' on Facebook.”

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  An open wedding is almost too fitting for Johnson and her fiancé; they’re polyamorous, of course.

  “But if you come, it’s a flower and dessert potluck,” Johnson adds, immediately balancing expectations, clarifying my role—practices that are integral to successfully maintain multiple partnerships.

  Polyamory, a form of nonmonogamy, was the fourth most searched relationship term on Google in 2017, perhaps because the concept is rife with common misconceptions. And that, in turn, may be because there is no easy, catch-all definition. It’s not just about expanding love beyond two romantic partners; it’s a fluid practice that shifts depending on the participants’ needs, desires, and agreed-upon norms. And it can be as much about selflessness and communication and being on top of your own emotions as it can be about sex and desire and autonomy.

  Many Love offers up a picture of what polyamory has looked like, over the years, for one person—and her many partners. The memoir chronicles Johnson’s journey, from learning about polyamory to finding many loves. We’re with her as she’s swept away by giddy high school romances, attempting to open up adult relationships, finding best friendship, finding primary partnership, finding community, finding boyfriends, then falling in love with a boyfriend while staying in a primary relationship. And at each milestone, she narrates her process of making sure she knows herself well enough to communicate her needs and emotions.

  All illustrations by Sophie Lucido Johnson, from "Many Love."
  Johnson says she anticipates readers to be people who are unhappy with their relationships, but the memoir functions more as a guide to the general concept of polyamory than a last-ditch “10 Ways To Fix A Relationship that Isn’t Working” listicle. For instance, it begins with a FAQ, a list of definitions, and a series of illustrated charts that serve as keys for understanding concepts integral to polyamory. Then, each chapter tackles the fundamental aspects of polyamory: deconstructing myths on singular love, exploring and prioritizing friendship, encountering casual love, having sex, experiencing jealousy, and “checking in.” And throughout, there are candid illustrations and excerpts from the canon of texts on polyamory: Sex at Dawn , The Ethical Slut, Dean Spade’s pivotal essay “For Lovers and Fighters”. (The bibliography is 4 pages long; it’s clear Johnson has done her homework.)

  But Many Love is not entirely a how-to: the book is as diaristic as it is informative. Readers are let into Johnson’s private thoughts, her interactions with lovers and friends, and all of their check ins. She doesn’t just check in with her primary partner and fiance Luke, but also with her best friend Hannah, her long-term roommate Derek, and then with Eli, Ben, Mac, Rory, Sean, Rory II, Sam, Jesse, Sean, Jaedon, Bob, and—most importantly, with herself.

  For Johnson, checking in mandates “transparency, communication, and enthusiastic consent.” Although it can look different for everyone, it’s a process generally fundamental to polyamorous relationships—to make sure that the parameters still work, that jealously is acknowledged, that no one partner has the upper-hand. “You’re always checking in,” Johnson muses, almost lamenting the extent to which the process is at the forefront of her relationships. “I’m so emotional as a person!”

  Indeed, there’s a lot of checking in, bringing the reader into the nitty-gritty negotiations of unconventional romance. But rather than tedious, as these conversations can be in your own life, reading along to Johnson’s is compelling—not least because of how freely she shares her emotions, how expansively vulnerable she is. At times, it feels like you’re sitting at Johnson’s kitchen table, witnessing her processing with her partner; her writing rings that true a transcript.

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  With that honesty comes the reality of the ongoing commitment and energy and battles with jealousy that polyamory requires. Long after Sophie has partnered with her fiancé Luke, fallen in love, moved with him across the country, and practiced polyamory, she still hurts when Luke finds a girlfriend. “The next girl was a person Luke really liked, and he shared with me a text he sent her in which he told her she was beautiful and amazing and funny,” she writes. “The jealousy came back and the processing, and the conversations, and the pain, and all the rest of it.”

  Along with the struggles, though, Many Love is very much so about the aspirations of polyamory. While Johnson articulates feelings of jealousy throughout, she doesn’t fail to bring up its counterpart: “compersion,” the joy of seeing a partner happy with someone else. When Johnson goes to visit her long-distance boyfriend, her partner Luke expresses how happy he is about it; and Johnson writes, “Now that I’ve experienced it wholeheartedly, I understand the appeal. Compersion feels great. It feels like getting a free root-beer float.”

  Johnson’s writing is, at times, as saccharine as her similes. To balance that sentimentality, I found myself wishing the chapter on sex was slightly juicier. But that’s not what Many Love is about, really. If you’re looking for racy descriptions of group sex or tips for switching up your bedroom life, you will not find them in these pages (although the rare illustrations of hooking are just provocative enough).

  What you will find is a notion of polyamory that begins without any description of sex at all. In Many Love’s introduction, Johnson and Luke attempt to have a romantic evening with another couple, but their DIY sushi night crumbles after their cat has to be rushed to the vet. What’s exchanged between the foursome is not titillating, but tender: The other couple nurtures Johnson and Luke, asking after their needs, making dinner, cleaning up, taking care of them.

  Such ability to truly support one another seems to come only after deep understanding—of self and partner—and an acceptance of the fluidity of life. “Polyamory means accepting the ways that love is going to change and checking in with yourself and your partners with the way that is going to change—it’s a great way to let go of your ego a bit,” Johnson says.

  Within such liberating release, though, Johnson shows us that it’s still possible to hold onto romantic traditions. Many Love ends with Luke and Johnson’s engagement: a fairy-tale finale that almost feels inaptly conventional. I found myself suddenly wondering if I had read a traditional romantic memoir. But Johnson’s explanation is simple: “I’m pro-commitment.”

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  “I want people to think about commitment differently, because I think commitment is really cool, but I don’t think commitment is about sex and mononormativity,” Johnson says. This is what Many Love accomplishes, within the canon of texts on polyamory: Transparently chronicling what commitment in the 21st century can look like. Johnson shows that, in nonmonogamy, it is not sex that orients one’s involvement with multiple partners, it is the ability to make sacrifices, to work on yourself, to show up and be held accountable.

  In fact, Johnson’s articulation of commitment was so moving, I found myself searching the web after I hung up the phone. “Plane tickets from New York to New Orleans” I typed in—wanting to continue reading by bearing witness to Johnson’s next romantic chapter.