Denise Dorrance, POLAR VORTEX: A Family Memoir

Totally Booked with Zibby

Zibby Owens

Connection, Inspiration, Moms, Entertainment, Arts, Reading, Books, Parenting, Literary

4.4 • 602 Ratings

🗓️ 23 April 2024

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Cartoonist and illustrator Denise Dorrance chats with Zibby about POLAR VORTEX, a poignant, heartbreaking, and darkly funny graphic memoir that perfectly captures the grief, nostalgia, and chaos of caring for an elderly, dementia-impaired parent in crisis. Denise recounts her experience of rushing back to Iowa from London to take care of her ailing mother and spending two chilling months with her—while a literal polar vortex loomed in the background. She also delves into the complexities of elder care, family dynamics, and the emotional toll of decision-making. Finally, she talks about her creative process and her evolution as an artist.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Zivie Owens, and I am the host of this podcast. Moms don't have time to read books.
0:08.1	I am also a newly minted USA Today bestselling author of the novel, Blank.
0:14.2	I've created a whole community of book lovers around this podcast, a publishing company, reading retreats, a bookstore, and more.
0:21.8	Learn more at zivimedia.com or follow me on social at Zivie Owens or join the community at
0:28.4	Zivie Readers.
0:31.7	Denise Dorrance is the author of Polar Vortex, a family memoir, which, by the way, is a graphic novel, and also, by the way, was really deeply affecting and moving.
0:43.6	And I really recommend you take an hour and just read this book.
0:48.4	American-born cartoonist and illustrator Denise Dorrance worked in magazines in New York for 12 years, including a cosmopolitan under
0:55.2	Helen Gurley Brown before moving to London in 1993. Her cartoons have run for decades in many
1:00.2	publications, including The Mail on Sunday, UK. Polar Vortex is her first graphic novel. In the UK,
1:05.9	it was shortlisted for the 2020 Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition and won the LD Comics 2020 Rosalent B Penfold Prize.
1:14.6	Enjoy.
1:15.1	Welcome, Denise.
1:16.0	Thank you so much for coming on Momsdown, have time to read books to discuss polar vortex, a graphic novel.
1:22.0	Thank you very much.
1:23.1	Happy to be here.
1:24.4	This is, is it my only graphic novel?
1:26.4	It's definitely one of the only ones.
1:28.3	And you came highly recommended by Miranda Callie Heller, who wrote The Paper Palace,
1:32.9	which is one of my all-time favorites.
1:34.5	So anything she said, I was like, yes.
1:36.6	And then I read your book and, oh, my gosh, I couldn't put it down.
	...

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