Tess Banta ’16 is a graphic novel editor living in Brooklyn, NY. Her career for the last eight years has centered around visual storytelling—since 2021, she’s worked as an integrated freelancer for First Second, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, helping to develop comic books for kids, teenagers, and adults by providing editorial feedback and art direction. Before transitioning into publishing, she was part of the Acquisitions and Development team at LAIKA, a stop-motion animation studio in Portland, OR.
Tess has a Bachelor of Arts in Art and the History of Art, and Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought from Amherst, earning her what might have been the longest and most unwieldy major description in the 2016 Olio. In her free time, she enjoys writing, drawing, and overanalyzing media.