Andrew Aydin

ANDREW AYDIN is co-author of the #1 New York Times best-selling graphic memoir series, MARCH, which chronicles the life of Congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis. Co-authored with Rep. Lewis and illustrated by Nate Powell, March is a recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award Special Recognition and the Coretta Scott King Book Award Author Honor. The Washington Post called March a must read monument.

An Atlanta native, Andrew grew up reading and collecting comic books. After college, upon taking a job with Congressman Lewis, Andrew learned that the civil rights legend had been inspired as a young man by a classic 1950s comic book, Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story. They discussed the impact that comic books can have on young readers and decided to write a graphic novel together about the civil rights era. The March series was born in 2013.

Today, Andrew serves as Digital Director & Policy Advisor to Congressman Lewis in Washington, D.C. A graduate of Trinity College in Hartford and Georgetown University in Washington, Andrew wrote his master thesis on the history and impact of Martin Luther King & The Montgomery Story.  His best-selling graphic novels March: Book One and March: Book Two are taught in high schools and colleges across the country. Andrew frequently lectures about the history of comics in the civil rights movement and has appeared as a guest on the Rachel Maddow Show, National Public Radio, CNN, the BBC and many other programs. He is a popular presenter at Comic-Con and at U.S. corporations and recently appeared as a guest speaker at Google and at the Apple headquarters in California.

President Bill Clinton has said of Congressman Lewis that, through March, “he brings a whole new generation with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, from a past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands." And Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that March is a very unique way to present what is probably the most important story of my entire lifetime. My hope is that everyone reads this, and I would love to see the day that it is required reading in every school."

For more about Andrew and his works, go to http://www.andrewaydin.com/