Biography
Nora Krug (b.1977) is an internationally acclaimed German-American illustrator and author whose art and stories have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde diplomatique, and A Public Space. Her work has also appeared in various anthologies published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Simon and Schuster, and Chronicle Books. Krug’s 2018 visual memoir, Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, was chosen as a best book of the year by The New York Times, The Guardian, NPR, Kirkus Review, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Boston Globe. The memoir (German title: Heimat) and her editorial illustrations and collaborations with other authors have earned her numerous other literary and art awards. Formerly Professor of Illustration at Muthesius University of Fine Arts and Design in Germany, Krug is currently Associate Professor of Illustration at the Parson’s School of Design in New York City.[1]
Born in 1977 in Karlsruhe, a city in southwestern Germany, Krug attended a middle and high school that specialized in classical music.[2] However, she chose to study art and enrolled in the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts in England where she earned a B.A. Honors degree in Performance Design. Upon returning to Germany, she received a diploma in Visual Communications from the Berlin University of the Arts, and at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, she earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in Illustration as a Visual Essay. Krug was also awarded fellowships from Fulbright, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Maurice Sendak Foundation, among others.[3]
Armed with a formal arts education and perspectives derived from academic institutions in three different countries, Krug sets out to explore “how political and social issues can be communicated on an emotional and personal level through visual narratives.”[4] Her highly acclaimed memoir, Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home, demonstrates Krug’s mastery of the goals of visual communication as she perceives them. Inspired to conduct exhaustive research into her family’s wartime past by an encounter with a concentration camp survivor in New York, Krug sought to understand her homeland, her family and her Heimat, the complex German concept of home and familiarity. In scrapbook format, mixing family photos and historic photographs, letters, drawings, and newspaper clippings, Krug’s Belonging takes the reader along with her as she searches for clues to her family’s role in World War II and questions the angst that she still experiences generations after.
Krug’s collaboration with historian Timothy Snyder produced a much-acclaimed graphic edition of Snyder’s On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2021). Snyder’s examination of the current political scene and the lessons that 20th century history has taught about the rise of authoritarianism, visually reinforced with Krug’s illustrations, was named “Best Graphic Novel” by The New York Times and was hailed by The Guardian as “a ‘how to’ guide for resisting tyranny.”[5]
Krug’s biographical comic strips often feature people who have lived remarkable lives but have never been publicly recognized. One featured an American soldier, Robert Jenkins, who fled north during the Korean war and was forced to stay there for 39 years. Another, “Fukutsu!” featured a Japanese soldier who hid in the Philippine jungle for 29 years, unaware that World War II had ended. Both are examples of Krug’s work appearing in various anthologies.
Krug’s illustrations have been recognized with gold and silver medals by the Society of Illustrators and the New York Art Directors Club, and her animations were shown at the Sundance Film Festival.[6]
Footnotes:
[1] Nora Krug’s website. “About” 2016. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://nora-krug.com/about
[2] Wikipedia website’s entry, “Nora Krug.” Accessed February 28, 2023. Last edited January 30, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nora_Krug
[3] Nora Krug’s website. “About” 2016. Accessed February 28, 2023. https://nora-krug.com/about
[4] The New School/Parsons website. 2022. “Nora Krug” (Illustration BFA) Accessed March 1, 2023. https://www.newschool.edu/parsons/profile/nora-krug/
[5] Wikipedia website’s entry, “On Tyranny.” Accessed March 1, 2023. Last edited February 2, 2023. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Tyranny
[6] Amazon website’s entry, “Nora Krug.” 1996-2023. Accessed on March 1, 2023. https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07FNYZ5QS/about
This artist’s biography was written by Phyllis Geraghty, a writer with professional experience in the public relations, education, health, and non-profit sectors.
Illustrations by Nora Krug
![[bandaged man reading book]](https://www.illustrationhistory.org/images/uploads/Krug_-_Le_Monde.jpg)
Additional Resources
Bibliography
Krug, Nora. Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
Krug, Nora. Der Jäger Abschied. Mantova: Corraini Edizioni, 2013.
Krug, Nora. “Fukutsu! (Never Give Up!),“ in A Public Space, ed. Brigid Hughes. New York: A Public Space Books, 2020.
Krug, Nora. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. California: Ten Speed Press, 2021.
Rausch, Molly and Nora Krug. My Cold Went on Vacation. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2011.
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