Marisa Acocella Marchetto

{{Infobox writer  | image = Marisa Acocella Marchetto 2015.jpg | imagesize = | name = Marisa Acocella | caption = Acocella at the 2015 Texas Book Festival | pseudonym = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1962}} | birth_place = New Jersey, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Author | nationality = American | period = | genre = | movement = | notableworks = ''Ann Tenna''<br />''Cancer Vixen''<br />''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway?'' | influences = | influenced = | alma_mater = | website = {{URL|https://www.marisaacocella.com/}} | spouse = {{marriage|Silvano Marchetto|2004|2017|end=divorced}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://nypost.com/2017/05/31/silvano-marchetto-finally-settles-divorce-case-wage-suit/ | title=Silvano Marchetto finally settles divorce case, wage suit | date=31 May 2017 }}</ref> }} '''Marisa Acocella''' (born 1962 in New Jersey) is an American cartoonist. She is the author of the ''New York Times'' best-selling graphic novel ''Ann Tenna'', the graphic memoir ''Cancer Vixen'', and ''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway?'' She is also a cartoonist for ''The New Yorker'' and a columnist for ''W'' magazine's website. Her work has appeared in ''The New York Times'', ''Glamour'', and ''O, The Oprah Magazine''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = About|url = http://www.marisaacocellamarchetto.com/about|website = Marisa Acocella Marchetto|access-date = 2015-10-01}}</ref>

==Personal life== Marisa Acocella was born in 1962 in New Jersey. One of four children, she grew up in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.<ref>Schlesinger, Toni. [https://observer.com/2006/10/cancer-vixen-tells-all/ "Cancer Vixen Tells All"], ''New York Observer'', October 2, 2006. Accessed August 12, 2019. "Ms. Marchetto grew up in a split-level home in Roselle Park, N.J."</ref> She currently lives in New York City.<ref name=":02">{{Cite web|url=https://www.notablebiographies.com/newsmakers2/2007-Li-Pr/Marchetto-Marisa-Acocella.html|title=Marisa Acocella Marchetto Biography - life, family, children, parents, story, school, mother, young, book - Newsmakers Cumulation|website=www.notablebiographies.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-10}}</ref> Her father was a pharmacist, and her mother, Violetta, was a shoe designer. In her first drawings, Marchetto drew copies of her mother's shoe designs.<ref name=":02" />

She attended the Pratt Institute in New York City, where she studied painting and eventually earned a degree from New York City's School of Visual Arts.<ref name=":02" />

In 2004, she married former restaurateur Silvano Marchetto. Three weeks before their wedding, Acocella was diagnosed with breast cancer. Despite her diagnosis, the wedding went as planned, and she began her treatments.<ref name=":02" /> Her breast cancer diagnosis and early drawings about it inspired her popular graphic memoir ''Cancer Vixen.''<ref name=":02" /> While undergoing chemotherapy, surgeries, and radiation treatments, she chose to refer to herself as a "cancer vixen," rather than "cancer victim."

In 2016, she filed for divorce from Marchetto. The divorce was finalized in 2017, and she took back her maiden name.<ref>Marsh, Julia. [https://nypost.com/2017/05/31/silvano-marchetto-finally-settles-divorce-case-wage-suit/],''New York Post'' June 2, 2017. Accessed February 13, 2024 </ref>

==Career== After graduating from the Pratt Institute, Acocella became an art director at J. Walter Thompson, a major Madison Avenue agency. There she met colleague Robert Kirshenbuam. After working together at J. Walter Thompson for four years, Acocella and Kirshenbuam left and founded Kirshenbuam and Bond, a boutique ad agency. After a few years there, however, Acocella moved on to become a senior vice president at Young & Rubicam.

While at Young & Rubicam, she began a comic strip entitled ''She''. Its heroine served as her alter ego, and, beginning in 1993. the strip became a regular feature in the women's magazine ''Mirabella.'' The cartoon followed the heroine's struggles with what to wear and how to handle life choices. Acocella took a leave of absence from her job at Young & Rubicam to work on her graphic novel, ''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? The Autobiography of She'', featuring the same character "She" from the ''Mirabella'' strip. But Acocella never returned to her job at Young & Rubicam after publication of the book'','' in 1994.

In the period spanning from 2000 to 2001, Acocella produced semi-regular comics journalism, a column called ''The Strip'', for ''The New York Times'', often on fashion topics.<ref>Johnson, Richard. "Lethal Gripe," ''New York Post'' (April 17, 2001).</ref>

In 2006, Knopf released her graphic memoir, ''Cancer Vixen: A True Story'', about her battle, in 2004 and 2005, with breast cancer. Details in the memoir include her seeking cancer treatment without health insurance, which she had let lapse. It was first published in ''Glamour'' magazine as a six-page cartoon.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Connecting From Off Campus - UF Libraries|journal = Gender and Society|volume = 28|issue = 5|pages = 655–678|jstor = 44288182|last1 = Sulik|first1 = Gayle|year = 2014|doi = 10.1177/0891243214540991| s2cid=220395871 }}</ref> Then, in 2006, the expanded graphic memoir was released as a book, depicting a woman with cancer, who chooses to live her life stylishly and fiercely, despite the illness. Acocella's story has been embraced by the breast cancer community and has inspired many, in the face of this disease, to become "vixens," rather than victims.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} ''Cancer Vixen'' was named one of''Time''{{'}}s top ten graphic memoirs. In 2013, HBO announced it was developing a ''Cancer Vixen'' film starring Cate Blanchett as Marisa Acocella Marchetto,<ref>{{cite news|last=Goldberg|first=Lesley|title=Cate Blanchett Developing 'Cancer Vixen' at HBO|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/cate-blanchett-developing-cancer-vixen-427983|access-date=15 September 2013|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=12 March 2013}}</ref> but, as of 2020, the film is still in development.

Her next book, ''Ann Tenna'', released in September 2015 by Knopf, is a ''New York Times'' best-selling graphic novel about an influential gossip columnist who has a near-fatal accident. She is brought face-to-face with her higher self, who challenges her to change her life for the better.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Ann Tenna|url = http://www.marisaacocellamarchetto.com/ann-tenna|website = Marisa Acocella Marchetto|access-date = 2015-10-08}}</ref> Marchetto has said that her life-threatening breast cancer diagnosis informed the story arc of ''Ann Tenna''.<ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR7FPs1DFVo|title = PEN DIY with Marisa Marchetto: How to Use Death as Your Life Coach|date = September 16, 2015|access-date = October 1, 2015|website = YouTube|publisher = |last = |first = }}</ref>

''The Big She-Bang: The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother'' was published in 2020 by Harper Collins. That graphic novel shares a story about rediscovering the Divine Female in order to bring balance back to the world.<ref>{{cite web | title=The Big She-Bang: The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother by Marisa Acocella | website=PublishersWeekly.com | url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780062905666 | access-date=2023-07-12}}</ref>

Acocella is currently a cartoonist for ''The New Yorker''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://marisaacocella.com/about/|title=About — Marisa Acocella Marchetto|website=Marisa Acocella Marchetto|language=en-US|access-date=2018-12-02}}</ref>

==Charitable work== Acocella has donated a portion of her ''Cancer Vixen'' royalties to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and is the founder of The Cancer Vixen Fund, which has funded free mammograms for uninsured women in New York City. The renamed Marisa Acocella Foundation funds free integrative therapies and free cold capping for women to prevent hair loss from chemotherapy at the Mount Sinai Dubin Breast Center and the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Comprehensive Cancer Center. The foundation also supports a complete empowerment program that includes yoga, Chi Qong, journaling, exercise, meditation, and nutrition. The Foundation's mission is: "No breast left behind."<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://www.marisaacocellamarchettofoundation.org/|title = Marisa Acocella Marchetto Foundation|date = |access-date = October 1, 2015|website = |publisher = |last = |first = }}</ref>

== Bibliography == === Comics journalism === * "The Sporting Life: You're Going into the Knicks' Locker Room?!!," ''The New Yorker'' (November 22, 1999): 67-68.

==== ''The Strip'' ==== * "Teen People Presents 'What's Next,'" ''The New York Times'' (November 19, 2000) * "A book party for 'Dear Sisters' Dispatches from the Women's Liberation Movement," ''The New York Times'' (December 10, 2000): Style 3 * "Is the party over?," ''The New York Times'' (December 24, 2000): Style 3 * "Outside Apt, a new nightclub on West 13th," ''The New York Times'' (January 21, 2001): Style 3 * "Susan Miller looked to the stars to predict trends during fashion week," ''The New York Times'' (February 4, 2001): Style 3 * "For Ling, a model but not a supermodel, Fashion Week is the most unglamorous week of the year," ''The New York Times'' (February 18, 2001): Style 3 * "Two parties for Elle Magazine's young collectors, a group interested in the crossover of art and fashion," ''The New York Times'' (March 4, 2001): Style 3 * "The International Beauty Show at the Javits Center where 500 companies brought their latest products," ''The New York Times'' (March 18, 2001): Style 3 * "A lunch at La Caravelle for 'longtime friends' of the restaurant, where models showed Chanel's spring 2001 collection," ''The New York Times'' (April 1, 2001): Style 3

=== Books === * ''Just Who the Hell is She, Anyway? The Autobiography of She'' (Crown Books, 1994) * ''Cancer Vixen: A True Story'' (Knopf, 2006) * ''Ann Tenna'' (Knopf, 2015) * ''The Big She-Bang: The Herstory of the Universe According to God the Mother'' (HarperCollins, 2020)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{official website|http://marisaacocellamarchetto.com}} * [http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307263575 ''Cancer Vixen'' at Alfred A. Knopf website]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marchetto, Marisa Acocella}} Category:American graphic novelists Category:American memoirists Category:American writers of Italian descent Category:The New Yorker cartoonists Category:Artists from New York City Category:People from Roselle Park, New Jersey Category:Living people Category:American women memoirists Category:American women novelists Category:Novelists from New Jersey Category:Novelists from New York (state) Category:American women comics writers Category:School of Visual Arts alumni Category:American magazine cartoonists Category:American women cartoonists Category:21st-century American women Category:1962 births Category:Writers from Union County, New Jersey Category:American columnists Category:American women columnists