So Many Ways to Draw a Ghost

So Many Ways to Draw a Ghost is a book about death, grief, and joy with writing and artwork by Chelsea Granger and a collection of contributing writers & artists who have come to know death intimately. It’s a powerful collection of essays, poems, paintings, illustrations, photographs, prayers, and rituals meant to honor the unbearable heartbreak of grief. 

So Many Ways to Draw a Ghost was six years in the making and was printed by Greko Printing (Comix Wellspring) in Plymouth, Michigan. Book contains 151 full-color pages and is soft covered.

From the introduction:
This book was made because I want to talk about death. Because I want to talk about grief. Because I believe we need to talk about it more than we do. Because when she died I wanted something like this. This book exists because I believe in art. Because I think our stories matter, because I think our grief matters. Because maybe one person who reads this might feel less alone. With this book I invite the dead to sit at the table and for us to sit there with them. May our grief deepen our presence and our joy.

In February of 2015, when I was 32, my dear friend, Ruth, who was also 32, died of colon cancer. Nine months after Ruth’s death, my mom, Suzann, died suddenly & unexpectedly at 61 from unknown causes. Around this same time within my close community, there were many deaths - fathers, mothers, babies, best friends – a storm cloud of death that had settled around me and my loved ones.
It was a lot.
It was too much.
This book is because of, and about how, things shifted for me since then.
It is a story of grief and learning to grieve, told in pieces. Death broke me, and it also helped me to become more fully alive. I hope this book can honor the unbearable heartbreak of grief.

You will find writing, drawings, photographs, comics, illustrations, prayers, rituals, paintings, essays, and poems. I have many friends who know death intimately and so I asked for contributions to speak to their different experiences with death. Their writing and art is beautiful, powerful, and humbling. I feel honored to share it with you alongside my own work.Yell

From the foreword by Sophie Wood:
This book is also meant as a companion in grief, so it is, of course, about grief, too. It does not speak to every form of grief, but the beauty of this project is that the specifics of her story can tune us to the specifics of our own grief. Or, if you are reading this book as you attend the grief of another, you will not be left murmuring if there’s anything I can do but instead will show up with specifics like a pot of soup, cleaning supplies and a long hug. There is a potency in specifics. An aliveness, if you will.