Roz Chast
In her 2014 graphic memoir “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” cartoonist and only child Roz Chast of Ridgefield chronicles caring for her elderly parents in the final years of their lives with quivery drawings and handwritten text.
Today, the Heinz Family Foundation named Chast the recipient of the 20th Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities category. The recipient in each category receives an unrestricted cash award of $250,000.
Chast, a best-selling and prolific illustrator and cartoonist, is known for finding humor in the anxieties, insecurities and neuroses of everyday modern life. More than 1,200 of Chast’s cartoons have appeared in The New Yorker, dating back to 1978, when she was a recent college graduate. She was one of the first female cartoonists to be published in the magazine — and one of the youngest.
Since then, her illustrations have appeared in Scientific American, Harvard Business Review, Mother Jones, and Redbook. She has also published multiple collections of her own cartoons and illustrated several children’s books.
“Roz Chast’s work is accessible, thought-provoking and filled with humanity. Her courageous, honest account of navigating her parents’ later years blended humor, artistry and heart-felt emotion. Through that work she shed new light on our society’s complicated relationship with aging while simultaneously defining a new genre of graphic memoir,” said Teresa Heinz, chairman of the Heinz Family Foundation. “She is a cartoonist, illustrator and writer whose mastery lies in helping us to laugh at our human foibles, to see that we are not alone in our struggles, and to frame the challenges we face in fresh new ways.”
In Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, Chast details the realities of end-of-life care — from facing the tragic effects of dementia to dealing with the high cost of elder care to managing her own personal feelings of guilt, exhaustion and love. The book was a finalist for the nonfiction 2014 National Book Award and, in March 2015, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for autobiography, the first graphic novel ever to do so.
“Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant? was the most personal work I’ve ever done, documenting the very emotional experience I went through with my parents,” said Chast. “I believe we can all do a better job in this country of taking care of our elderly. And when we talk about a problem instead of avoiding it, we can help solve it.”
Established to honor the memory of the late U.S. Sen. John Heinz, the 20th Heinz Awards this year recognize those who have made significant contributions in five distinct areas of great importance to Sen. Heinz: arts and humanities; environment; human condition; public policy; and technology, the economy and employment.
In addition to Roz Chast, the 20th Heinz Awards honored the following individuals:
• Environment: Frederica Perera DrPH, Ph.D., New York, N.Y., for research and advocacy efforts on the effects of air pollutants on the health of children in the pre- and postnatal periods.
• Human Condition: (co-recipients) William McNulty and Jacob Wood, Team Rubicon, Los Angeles, Calif., for their leadership in creating a purposeful way for returning veterans to continue their service by engaging them in lifesaving global disaster relief efforts.
• Public Policy: Aaron Wolf Ph.D., Corvallis, Ore., for spearheading a transformative approach to water disputes emphasizing cooperation over conflict.
• Technology, the Economy and Employment: Sangeeta Bhatia MD, Ph.D., Cambridge, Mass., for her seminal work in tissue engineering, including the first cultivation of liver cells outside the human body.