About - The Habit of Art

Welcome to The Habit of Art by Kelcey Ervick, a free illustrated newsletter about writing, drawing, and storytelling as radical acts (that look a lot like sitting at a desk).

I’ve been writing for a lot of years. I got a PhD in it. I’m a professor of it. But a few years ago, I started drawing every day, and it changed . . . everything. How I look at the world, how I SEE the world, how I think, how I write, how I teach, how I draw. It also led to getting an agent and publisher for my graphic memoir.

I am passionate about writing and drawing these Substack posts, where I share insights, struggles, and creative inspiration based on my work as an author, artist, and professor—and where I am equally inspired by the community.

Subscribe to receive illustrated letters about:

Why it’s so important and radical (and hard!) to make art and tell meaningful stories.
How to cultivate a “habit of art”—lessons from my years of daily art-making.
Books I’ve read. Cat’s I’ve loved. Birds I’ve watched.

On the bookshelf

I am the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir, The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women’s Lives, which Alison Bechdel calls “a triumph!” It’s about growing up in girls’ sports in the early years of Title IX, all the awful things I did to my hair in the 1980s, and figuring out how to become a writer.

Inspired by my own shift toward visual storytelling, I’m the co-editor with Tom Hart of The Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Graphic Literature, which is about making all kinds of comics, graphic poetry, and literary collage.

On the web

Author page: https://kelceyervick.com/
Art and stuff on Instagram.
Reluctantly still on Twitter, X, whatever.
I wrote about the experience of daily art-making at The Rumpus, twice.

On the river

I live on the banks of the St. Joseph River in northern Indiana, where I am regularly attacked by geese and red-winged blackbirds. I’m a professor of creative writing at Indiana University South Bend, which also happens to be on the banks of the St. Joe River.

In the studio

After two decades and three books written in shared spaces, I finally have a room of my own. Here is a picture of me in it.

Subscribe to The Habit of Art

An illustrated newsletter by Kelcey Ervick about writing, drawing, and storytelling as radical acts (that look a lot like sitting at a desk).

People

Kelcey Ervick

Hi! I love to write and draw. I'm the author and illustrator of the graphic memoir, THE KEEPER, and co-editor with Tom Hart of THE ROSE METAL PRESS FIELD GUIDE TO GRAPHIC LITERATURE, about making all forms of comics, graphic poetry, and collage.