132 Creator Chat with Lee Lai

132 Creator Chat with Lee Lai

From ALIA Graphic Podcast by ALIA Graphic Novels and Comics

May 14, 2026 · 47 min · Episode 132

About this episode

Lee Lai discusses her award-winning graphic novel Cannon and reflects on her creative process and inspirations.

In this creator chat, Iurgi sits down for a chat with Lee Lai who has just won the Stella Prize for Cannon. It was long overdue with Cannon being one of the most outstanding graphic novels of 2025. The chat was recorded before the Stella Prize winner was announced. 00:20 Introduction 05:39 Lee talks about the recent book tour in Australia 07:43 Lee looks back at the publication of Stone Fruit 10:53 Conversation turns to Cannon and where the ideas for it originated 17:55 Discussion moves to Cannon and Trish and their struggles and dilemmas 28:57 Lee reflects on taking inspiration from real life events and people and harnessing them for fiction stories 33:49 Conversation turns to the horror genre and horror comics with Lee declaring herself a new horror fan 40:49 What’s next for Lee Lai (that she can talk about) 44:01 Lee discusses what she’s reading and what she recommends, including a shout out to Fionn McCabe and Eloise Grills This the second chat with Lee Lai on the ALIA Graphic Podcast, if you missed out the first time or you want to rediscover the chat when we talked about Stone Fruit, it’s Episode 29 on our feed or you can find it here…

People in this episode

Host: Iurgi

Guest: Lee Lai

Topics covered

  • graphic novels
  • author interview
  • Cannon
  • Stone Fruit
  • horror comics
  • book tour

Keywords

  • Lee Lai
  • Cannon
  • Stone Fruit
  • Stella Prize
  • graphic novels
  • horror comics
  • book tour

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stella Prize

Books & works: Cannon, Stone Fruit

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