Kayla E. is an award-winning designer and artist based in North Carolina. She serves as Creative Director at Fantagraphics Books, where she leads the design and production of the company’s comics and art titles.

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Her work has been recognized with a Creative Capital Award, the Albert Alcalay Prize in Visual Arts at Harvard University, multiple American Illustration Awards, and two Eisner Award nominations, including one for Best Book Design. She led the visual direction of the Whiting Award–winning literary magazine Nat. Brut for nearly a decade and has collaborated with institutions and publishers including the Museum of Modern Art, Algonquin Books, Workman Publishing, and Deep Vellum Press.

 

Alongside her design career, Kayla is the author of Precious Rubbish, winner of the 2025 Ignatz Award for Outstanding Graphic Novel and an Honorable Mention in the International Latino Book Awards. The book was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, Booklist, A.V. Club, Literary Hub, and The Guardian. She studied Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University and was a Hodder Fellow in Creative Writing at Princeton University.