Author Event: Bury Me Already (It's Nice Down Here) by Julia Wertz

Join us for a special event with Julia Wertz, author of Bury Me Already (It's Nice Down Here), Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story, and Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City. This event is free, but we appreciate your RSVP below so we can plan for your attendance.

Raw, honest, and hilarious, Bury Me Already (It's Nice Down Here) chronicles the joy and horror of becoming a mother during challenging times.

In this follow-up to the acclaimed memoir Impossible People—a book about getting sober and becoming a professional artist in New York City—cartoonist Julia Wertz returns home to Northern California, where she reunites with her family and rekindles a relationship with an ex-boyfriend. After a surprise pregnancy and a marriage proposal, Julia settles (somewhat reluctantly) into a quiet life in a small town. But as 2020 approaches, her world, and the world at large, takes a sharp turn toward unexpected chaos. Through comic vignettes, essays, and diary doodles, Julia recounts the events of her pregnancy and its attendant body horror, a miscarriage, family trauma, marriage, a life-altering accident, and the joy and surprises of parenthood as it all unfolds against the backdrop of local wildfires and a global pandemic. The result of this unconventional collection is a heart-wrenching and hilarious story of adversity, resilience, and, ultimately, love.

"I cackled and teared up throughout Julia Wertz's intimate, moving memoir about the preciousness of life and love, told through the journey of motherhood and the near loss of a beloved family member. I'd line up to read any book she writes, but I'm so grateful she gave us this one." — Priyanka Mattoo, author of Bird Milk & Mosquito Bones

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julia Wertz is a professional cartoonist/writer, amateur historian, and part-time urban explorer. Her graphic novels include: The Fart Party Vol 1 & Vol 2 (collected in Museum of Mistakes); Drinking at the Movies; The Infinite Wait & Other Stories; Tenements, Towers, & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City (recipient of the Brendan Gill Prize), and Impossible People: A Completely Average Recovery Story. She does monthly non-fiction comics for the New Yorker. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Harper’s Magazine, the Believer, the Best American Comics, and other publications. Her photography of abandoned places has appeared in a handful of newspapers. She is a repeat MacDowell residency fellow, but was rejected from Yaddo.

Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she spent a decade in New York City before settling in Sonoma County, CA, with her partner, Oliver, and their son, Felix. Her newest graphic novel Bury Me Already (It’s Nice Down Here) was published by Black Dog & Leventhal/Hachette in April 2026.

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