Camila Kerwin - Soft Targets

To be held at Solid State Books on H St. NE

A work of comics journalism around the stories of four kids who have died in the U.S. due to gun violence or gun negligence—the leading cause of death for minors since 2020, and dispelling myths of the history of gun culture in the U.S.

Who have we lost? How did we get here? Why do gun-lovers love their guns? These are the questions that people across America ask every time another news story broadcasts a death from gun violence.

With compassionate, thoughtful journalism, this graphic novel explores the lives of four kids and teenagers and the guns that ended their lives: from incidents of gang violence to school shootings to suicide. These tragedies are presented alongside the history of gun culture and legislation, discussing the NRA, the legal system, and the racial imbalances in American gun violence.

Camila Kerwin is an award-winning journalist who makes comics and radio. She’s a regular comics contributor to The Boston Globe and a founding member of the audio editing studio Rough Cut Collective. Camila illustrated the Edward R. Murrow Award-winning 'Class of COVID-19: An Education Crisis for Florida’s Vulnerable Students,' for WLRN. She has been a producer at Marketplace’s This is Uncomfortable, Storycorps, and NPR’s On Point, and an editor at KCRW’s Bodies. Her work has appeared on WNYC, NPR’s Morning Edition, Sony’s Cheat!, PRI's The World, and in The Miami Herald. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from NYU and holds a master’s degree from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism as well as an MFA from Boston University. She lives in Brooklyn with her wife and cat.