Kelsey Wroten’s new graphic novel Cannonball is by turns a satirical social portrait of a queer, binge-drinking, abrasively ambitious young writer and a hilarious meditation on artistic purity and self-delusion. Dumped by her girlfriend, surrounded—in her opinion—by philistines and sellouts, and usually broke, novelist Caroline Bertram escapes her abusive middle-class family home determined to write a literary masterpiece and settle a few scores. Obsessed with a cheesy female pro wrestler on one hand and driven by rarified artistic ambition on the other, Bertram is relentlessly entertaining, no matter whether she’s wallowing in boozy self-pity or spewing lengthy, hyper-articular rants and corrosive sneers at both friends and perceived enemies—or essentially anyone who will put up with her. Wroten has been interviewed on the More to Come podcast and also authored a list of 10 Essential Graphic Novels and Memoirs About Queer Women for PW. This is a 10-page excerpt from Cannonball and the graphic novel will be published this month by Uncivilized Books.