Sarah Leavitt is a Canadian graphic novelist. She is notable for the graphic memoirs Tangles and Something, Not Nothing and the historical fiction graphic novel Anges, Murderess.
Career
Tangles Leavitt's graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me, was published in 2010. It focuses on Leavitt's mother Midge's life with Alzheimer's disease and how Leavitt and her other family members' relationships with her were affected as her disease progressed. In 2026, it was adapted into an animated feature film, Tangles, which debuted at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Leavitt co-wrote the film's screenplay and was portrayed in the film by Abbi Jacobson, with Julia Louis-Dreyfus both directing the film and voicing Midge.
Agnes, Murderess Agnes, Murderess is a 2019 historical fiction graphic novel about Agnus McVee, an alleged 19th-century serial killer in British Columbia. It won the 2020 Vine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature in the Fiction category.
Something, Not Nothing Something, Not Nothing: A Story of Grief and Love is a 2024 graphic memoir that collects comics Leavitt created in the two years following the death of Domino, her partner of twenty-two years, who died in 2020 with MAiD after many years of debilitating illness and chronic pain caused by several medical conditions. It details the couple's lives leading to Domino's health rapidly worsening in 2019 and making the choice to die with medical assistance, as well as Leavitt coming to terms her grief in the aftermath. Kirkus Reviews called the book a "uniquely gorgeous chronicle" and gave it a starred review. It was shortlisted for both the Eisner Award for Best Graphic Memoir and the Lambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ Comics, and was the 2024 winner of the Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes.
Personal life Leavitt is Jewish-Canadian and lesbian. She is an assistant professor at the School of Creative Writing at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
Publications
Accolades +YearAwardTitleResultRefernce2010Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and MeHilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction2011Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize2020Agnes, MurderessVine Awards for Canadian Jewish Literature - FictionDoug Wright Award for Best Book2025Something, Not Nothing Jim Deva Prize for Writing that Provokes"Sarah Leavitt, Minelle Mahtani and Li Charmaine Anne among 2025 BC and Yukon Book Prizes winners". CBC Books, September 23, 2025.Eisner Award for Best Graphic MemoirLambda Literary Award for LGBTQ+ ComicsJudy Grahn Award2026TanglesQueer PalmCaméra d'Or
References