Middle Distance: A Graphic Memoir

by Mylo Choy

Overview

This heartfelt graphic memoir takes us through the highs, lows, twists, and turns of the author’s relationship with running, down the long road toward self-acceptance.

A charming, heartwarming, and poignant story of running and self-acceptance, Mylo Choy’s Middle Distance combines exertion and introspection in an exploration of the physical body’s connection to the human experience. An exciting graphic addition to a growing field, this sports memoir recounts Mylo’s history with running, and how their love for that famously solitary sport pushed them to grow over time.

As Middle Distance grapples with themes of resilience, identity, and self-care, Mylo leads us along the middle way between motion and rest, hurt and healing, fear and joy. The result is an honest, nuanced work of subtle power that will appeal to all runners, especially those who are transgender or nonbinary.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781914224157
Publisher:	SelfMadeHero
Publication date:	10/31/2023
Pages:	152
Sales rank:	231,434
Product dimensions:	6.75(w) x 9.50(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Mylo Choy finds comfort in the spaces between things. As a mixed-race and nonbinary person, moving between worlds feels like home to them. Born and raised in Wisconsin, they also developed a strong connection to Hawaii, where their mother was born and raised. For over 10 years, they were employed in outdoor education, living and working in many places, including Maine and Hawaii, but mostly they moved between New York City and the woods upstate. They currently live in the Hudson Valley, exploring planting roots in one place for a while. Mylo’s work—ranging from music to graphic stories and comics—uses the inherent tensions of multimedia to bring to life the space they inhabit between worlds. Inspired by nature’s ability to offer peace and perspective, their work is contemplative without being brooding and soothing without being escapist. Middle Distance is their first full-length graphic novel.

Editorial Reviews

10/30/2023

Nonbinary musician and cartoonist Choy debuts with a meditative graphic memoir detailing their practice of daily running. As a bookish sixth-grade loner in Wisconsin, Choy participated in their first race (“a required part of the public school curriculum”) and discovered a passion for the solitary sport: “I was in a cocoon of my own experience. I felt free. A way to be in my own world.” Though ostensibly a healthful activity, running also enables Choy to remain aloof from others, dodge general life issues (such as pubertal changes), and avoid being trouble to their parents—­unlike their brother, whose emotions fill the household as Choy tries to keep their feelings inside and quiet. After training for their first marathon at age 26, chronic knee pain derails Choy’s running for a few bereft years: “I’d put my faith in running, but running was gone.” Eventually, Choy finds that this temporary void allows them the freedom to grow in other ways. They begin a new practice­­­—honestly communicating inner thoughts and feelings first to themself and then to others—that finally integrates mind, body, and spirit. Choy’s emotionally direct narrative voice is well served by their clear page layouts and simple, high-contrast black-and-white line, which is somewhat reminiscent of Jennifer Camper’s. The result is a gently feel-good tale of self-empowerment. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly