Ellen Forney
ArtistAuthor
United States
Ellen Forney is an American artist whose work combines memoir, illustration and mental-health advocacy. She is best known for the graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me and the companion guide Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life. [1]
Career and work
Forney has worked professionally as an artist and illustrator since 1992 and has published several books of comics and illustrated memoir. [11]
Her best-known book is the 2012 graphic memoir Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & Me, which became a New York Times bestseller. She later published Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life, a graphic guide to maintaining mental health that was selected for JAMA’s Best Graphic Medicine. [1]
Forney also collaborated with Sherman Alexie on The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. She curated the National Library of Medicine exhibition Graphic Medicine: Ill-Conceived & Well-Drawn and created two permanent large-scale murals for Seattle’s Capitol Hill light-rail station. She has also taught comics at Cornish College of the Arts. [1]
What has been publicly discussed
Sources and other resourcesExpand to view the sources used in this profile and resources to learn more.
Sources used for this profile
The following sources contain information that supports the claims made on this page.
Official biographyEllen Forney Provides career information including Marbles, Rock Steady, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, her National Library of Medicine exhibition, public art, teaching and later bipolar wellness coaching.
profile or biographySeattle Public Library, 2018Ellen Forney Discusses Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar Life A substantial first-person talk covering Forney’s 1998 bipolar diagnosis, mania and depression, the years spent becoming stable, medication changes, support systems and her approach to maintaining stability over the long term.
documentNPR/KLCC, 2012Memoir Traces How Cartoonist Lost Her ‘Marbles’ A first-person interview about Forney’s bipolar diagnosis, mania, fear that treatment would affect her creativity and her eventual view that stability supports her creative work.
interview
View all 11 sources
Seven Days, 2015Cartoonist Ellen Forney Talks Memoir, Creativity and Bipolar Disorder Supports Forney’s account that she had not previously been publicly “out” about bipolar disorder and that Marbles was the first time she told the story in full.
book or publisher pageChatelaine, 2014Happy and bipolar: One woman’s journey to balance Contains Forney’s descriptions of mania, depression, creativity and how her understanding of bipolar disorder changed after diagnosis.
article or webpageThe Guardian, 2013Ellen Forney: a graphic memoir of bipolar disorder Covers her diagnosis, years spent finding effective medication, lithium treatment, concerns about losing creativity and the stability she eventually achieved.
book or publisher pageJournal of Bioethical Inquiry, 2016Bipolar 1 As Graphic Memoir A first-person essay by Forney describing being diagnosed while acutely manic, initially refusing medication, subsequently experiencing severe depression and gradually reaching increasingly reliable stability.
book or publisher pageSmash Pages, 2018Smash Pages Q&A: Ellen Forney on Rock Steady Supports Forney’s discussion of long-term management, individualized medication needs, her own expectation of remaining on medication and how publishing Marbles led her toward mental-health advocacy.
interviewPublishers Weekly, 2018Brilliant Advice On Being Bipolar: PW Talks with Ellen Forney Discusses Rock Steady as a practical guide to living with mood disorders and Forney’s shift from memoir toward helping readers manage bipolar disorder over the long term.
book or publisher pagePsychology Today, 2018Bipolar Survival Guide: Interview With Ellen Forney, Part 1 Contains Forney’s emphasis on maintaining long-term stability and provides the quotation used in the profile.
interviewEllen Forneyarticle or webpage
Learn more
Recommended books and other resources about Ellen Forney and their experiences.
- Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, & MeBook · Ellen Forney, 2012
Forney’s graphic memoir about being diagnosed with bipolar disorder shortly before turning 30, her manic and depressive episodes, fears about medication and creativity, and the years-long process of finding greater stability.
- Rock Steady: Brilliant Advice From My Bipolar LifeBook · Ellen Forney, 2018
A companion to Marbles that shifts from memoir to practical guidance, covering medication, sleep, routines, warning signs, coping tools and other strategies for maintaining stability.
- Comics Creator Ellen Forney on Bipolar and a Monster Named SmedmertsInterview · Depresh Mode, 2022
A long-form interview about mania, depression, treatment, therapy, Marbles, Rock Steady and how Forney thinks about living with bipolar disorder over the long term.
- Ellen Forney — SMEDMERTSPodcast · Wellbeing
A podcast interview focused on Forney’s approach to long-term bipolar management, including sleep, medication, finding the right treatment, her SMEDMERTS framework and the development of Rock Steady.